Dubai arrests a gang impersonating 'Consumer Protection' employees

The Anti-Fraud Centre at the General Directorate of Criminal Investigation of the Dubai Police has warned the public of the potential for fraudulent activities. It has been observed that individuals have been receiving calls purporting to be from official authorities.

These calls request that customers update their personal data or provide confidential information such as their bank account details. It has been determined that these calls are fraudulent in nature and are intended to deceive the recipient into divulging their financial information, including sensitive details such as the CVV number and One-Time Password (OTP).

The purpose of this deception is to facilitate the fraudulent acquisition of funds from the victim's bank account.

The Dubai Police have successfully arrested a gang that had developed a novel method of impersonating 'Consumer Protection' employees. Through a series of strategic calls, the criminals were able to deceive a number of citizens and residents, falsely claiming to be an official body before requesting access to the UAE PASS' application and requesting updates to their personal data.

By exploiting this vulnerability, the perpetrators were then able to gain unauthorised access to the victims' bank accounts, subsequently leading to the theft of significant sums of money.

The Dubai Police explained that the gang members had employed a range of sophisticated fraudulent methods to successfully convince their victims to provide them with confidential information, most notably bank card data.

This was achieved by exploiting the trust that people place in official authorities, with the aim of withdrawing money from the accounts without the owners' knowledge.

The Anti-Fraud Centre entrusted a task force to apprehend the perpetrators. Through meticulous investigation, the task force was able to identify the perpetrators' locations and subsequently apprehend them in possession of the equipment utilised in these illicit activities.

Dubai Police have issued a warning to the public, urging them to exercise extreme caution when dealing with individuals requesting personal or confidential data, particularly those purporting to be from official entities or financial institutions.

The warning specifically advises against disclosing such information, citing the potential for fraudulent activities such as 'updating data' under false pretenses.

Members of the public are hereby requested to report instances of cyber fraud by visiting the nearest police station and using the 'E-CRIME' platform. This platform is specialised in receiving reports of this nature and can be accessed via the following electronic address: www.ecrime.ae