Dubai Police recover over Dhs1m for victim of online scam

Dhs1 million was almost lost after an Arab young woman fell victim to a fraudster who impersonated a civil servant and deluded her that her bank account was suspicious, exploiting her trust and persuaded her to transfer her money to another account.

However, Dubai Police’s vigilance and speedy action turned the course of the incident after they succeeded in recovering the funds within a short period to save the young woman from a huge financial loss, in an incident that revealed the scammers’ renewed methods and their ability to exploit the trust and fears of their victims.

Earlier, a fraudster, posing as a civil servant, convinced the young woman that her bank account was under suspicion and persuaded her to transfer her money to another account, ostensibly for verification purposes. Upon realizing she had been ensnared, she promptly alerted the police, who took immediate action and, within a short period, managed to recover her funds.

Revealing the details of the incident, Lieutenant Colonel Ali Al Yamahi, Director of Anti-Cybercrime Centre at Dubai Police’s General Department of Criminal Investigation, stated that the young woman was targeted by a fraudster while traveling for tourism.

The perpetrator contacted the victim, posing as a representative of a government entity, and convinced her that her bank account was under suspicion, claiming that the organisation he purported to represent needed to verify it and warning her not to inform anyone, lest the matter be exposed, he said.

After the young woman returned to the country, the fraudster asked her to transfer her funds to an account of his choice, promising that all the money would be returned to her once verification procedures were complete.

Later, he instructed her to go to the bank to recover her account but it was an official bank holiday, so he told her that a staff member would come to meet her, he said, adding that she waited for several hours, but no one arrived. Realizing she had fallen victim to a scam, she went to the police to report the incident, he said.

Dubai Police took action immediately upon receiving the report, forming a specialized security team to conduct an investigation, he added, noting that within a short period, they were able to recover the funds, amounting to over Dhs1 million, and return them to the young woman.

Warning against the dangers of online fraud, Al Yamahi stgressed the necessity of verifying the credibility of websites before entering personal or banking information. He further advised against sharing credit card details or bank account data with any untrusted individuals or entities.

He called on members of the society to quickly report any unknown financial transactions or suspicious activities via the 901 call centre, Police Eye service or the cybercrime platform eCrime, available through Dubai Police app and official website.

He underlined the importance of community awareness of new fraud methods and the necessity of early reporting of any suspicious incidents to enable security authorities to move quickly, detect crimes and protect members of the society from the risks of financial and electronic fraud.