Sharjah: Police arrested a local gang of five men who worked with an international crime syndicate that specialised in fraud and swindling.
A senior official at the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of Sharjah Police told Gulf News that the gang forged credit cards and used the internet to communicate with their victims as well as with their international counterparts.
The CID official said: "The gang would pose as brokers and target residents who were unable to pay their bills on time. They would then convince their victims that they had the facilities to offer a 25 per cent discount on their bills that were paid through the internet."
The local gang comprised of five men, including four Arabs and an African.
Police initially received numerous complaints from firms and public corporations that offered the facility of bills to be paid online using credit cards.
When the bills were transferred to the banks, it was discovered that the credit cards were forged and that some names of credit card owners did not correspond to the names in the bank account.
"So in reality, none of the bills were actually paid off," said the police official. Police also learned that the credit cards were either stolen or forged.
During investigation, the CID discovered that the mastermind was an Arab who set up a website promoting his services.
The suspect claimed to be a broker that could enable cardholders to make payments at a 25 per cent discount.
