‘Dog the Bounty Hunter’ Star Duane Chapman Asked to Fly to Dubai, Make a Speech for $430K, But Turns out to Be Massive Scam

Duane “Dog” Chapman almost fell for a pricey scam. The bounty hunter was offered a whopping $430,000 dollars to fly to Dubai and make a speech. However, it turned out that it was too good to be true — kind of.

Chapman and his literary agent, Alan Nevins of Renaissance Talent, were sent an email that looked like it was from the office of Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan — the Deputy Prime Minister of United Arab Emirates — who offered the reality tv star an opportunity to speak at an economic empowerment convention for small business owners at the end of this month on August 31. So, a contract was sent that looked legit, and both parties gave a nod at following up.

In the meantime, Chapman joked with his agent that if it was a fake money, maybe he could break a money laundering scheme.

After everyone negotiated and signed deals, flags were raised. All communication had been cut down to email only — which was blamed on the 11 hour time difference, according to TMZ. After that, Nevins called the hotel that was listed on what looked like a legit website — mansourfoundation.org — to see if the event was actually being held there, but it turns out that the hotel had no idea of any sort of event taking place.

After so many red flags, the last one is what put the cherry on top for the two. Organizers of the alleged event mentioned to Chapman and Nevins that they were having issues wiring the money into his business account and requested his personal account instead. That’s when they walked away from the deal.

However, Chapman was sent an actual check for the right amount turning the opportunity down, but after he was given that money, he was asked by the senders to donate $250,000 of it back to the organization. So, Chapman and Nevins called the Portland bank that issued the check and the Portland construction company — Benson Industries — who’s name was listed on the check as if they wrote it.

The bank did confirm it was a real, active account, but the construction company said they did not cut the check.

Here’s the catch: if Chapman had cashed the check, it would have gone into his account only for a few days, then the funds would have disappeared. If he had cashed the check and donated the $250,000, that would have come out of his own pocket since the funds would have retracted back to the sender.

Apparently, these high dollar scammers are after people in the public eye, like Chapman, who are known for having quite a bit to their name.