The gang in Sharjah Police custody.

The Sharjah Police once again warned the public not to respond to the fake text messages sent by people who claim to represent UAE banks and lure their victims in deceptive ways by telling fake stories to obtain their bank data and personal information, which would be subsequently used to access and hack their bank accounts.

This came after a report was received by the Al Dhaid Comprehensive Police Station of the Central Region Police Department, in which a man was defrauded by an unidentified person after the latter called him and gave him the impression that he was a bank employee who wanted to update his data. This enabled the perpetrator to penetrate the victim’s bank accounts and withdraw Dhs96,000.

Colonel Hamad Al Riyami, Acting Director of the Central Region Police Department, said the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) formed a team to track down and identify the perpetrators for the danger they posed to individuals, companies, bank accounts and credit cards. After taking all legal measures, the CID agents were able to arrest the perpetrators over a short time. The perpetrators were found to belong to a gang of nine Asians specialized in this type of swindling and fraud.

The perpetrators used to call customers or send fake messages to them and inform them of the need to renew their account data; otherwise, the bank’s services would be suspended and their accounts would be frozen. Consequently, the account holders used to behave as instructed, while the perpetrators used to transfer the balances from the victims’ accounts to other accounts in other banks and then to outside the country.

Al Riyami stated that a large number of smartphones and chips bearing numbers for some telecommunications companies operating in the country were seized in their possession together with sums of money, many receipts of money transfers and other papers printed in Arabic and English showing their modus operandi.

Al Riyami called on the public not to pay attention to misleading messages or communications and to inform the police of any crimes or suspected frauds, stressing that banks do not require their customers to disclose their bank data or personal information through SMS or emails.