UAE cybersecurity chief warns of social media fraud targeting society

Dr Mohammed Hamad Al Kuwaiti, Head of the UAE Government Cybersecurity Council, warned of electronic fraud methods targeting members of society through social media networks, stressing the need to raise awareness to confront this type of crime.

A story was told during the third Ramadan majlis on drug prevention held under the slogan ‘Conscious Family... Safe Homeland’ and organised by the National Drug Enforcement Authority (NDEA) in Abu Dhabi at Abdullah Bin Dafna Council. The session was moderated by media personality Raed Mohammed Al Shayeb.

Al Kuwaiti pointed out that the story was not meant for children but for adults and depicted a retired man in his late sixties who was subjected to an attempted blackmail after he had created an account on Instagram where he put his personal data.

It wasn't long before he received a friend request from a girl and they exchanged short phrases before she disappeared for a while and then communication resumed through the account but from another person who sent him a video clip showing the girl being assaulted, which greatly frightened him and made him believe that the incident was real, he said.

He explained that the old man did not sleep for several days out of anxiety until his son contacted him, while the unknown person continued to message him and demand that he pay a ransom of Dhs150,000 to stop assaulting the girl.

The victim received a call from a number claiming to belong to the UAE’s embassy in Yemen, he said, adding that the callers informed him that they had left Yemen and had no intention to interfere and that if he wanted to solve the problem, he should call the people there for payment.

Al Kuwaiti clarified that the embassy did not even exist, that the number was incorrect and that the perpetrators fabricated a story to implicate the old man.

He added that the victim claimed the ambassador had spoken to him, so the ambassador was contacted to verify but he confirmed that the whole thing was a complete fabrication.

It was found that the perpetrators had deceived more than 13 people and got transfers worth Dhs150,000.

The session, which discussed the theme of family and envisioning a secure future for children, was also attended by Major General Dr. Ahmed Naser Al Raisi, Inspector General at Ministry of Interior, and Dr. Ebrahim Al Alkeem, National Risk and Policy Director at the General Secretariat of the National Anti-Money Laundering and Combatting the Financing of Terrorism and Proliferation Financing.