Man jailed, fined Dhs1m for hacking email

Aya Al Deeb, Staff Reporter

The Abu Dhabi Appellate Court sentenced a GCC man to one year in prison and fined him Dhs1 million, on charges of hacking the e-mail of  a tourism and hotel company, conniving with an anonymous person.

The suspects emailed from the email address to the other tourism company asking them to send the agreed amounts to the bank account number of the first suspect’s contracting company.

The Prosecution charged the suspect with seizing money belonging to a company, after conniving with another person, using the means of information technology. He reportedly impersonated the manager of the tourism company.

After hacking the company’s e-mail, he reportedly demanded that the agreed amounts be transferred to the bank account of his contracting company. The victim’s company suspected the matter. The prosecution also charged him with forging an investment partnership contract between the victim’s company and his contracting company.

The bank in which the money was deposited under the name of the suspect discovered the issue and filed a lawsuit indicating that Dhs14.429 million were deposited in the account of one of the contracting companies, explaining that an anonymous person impersonated the owner of the tourism company, contacted branch of the bank in an Arab country and asked to transfer the money to the account of his the contracting company.

After the money was deposited, the suspect presented a forged investment partnership contract to the bank.

The Court of First Instance sentenced the defendant to three years’ imprisonment, fined him Dhs1 million and confiscated the forged document.  The defendant appealed and asked to call on an expert of information technology to investigate the piracy incident.

The Appellate Court commuted the jail term to one year, with the Dhs1 million fine.

Last month, a male GCC national posing as a Snapchat girl to con youths out of cash and valuables was arrested, police announced. He targeted more than 50.

The defendant is a man who enjoys good reputation in his social environment, works in a prestigious position and receives a salary that guarantees his well-being and quality of life, explained Dubai Police officers.