Dubai: The public is urged not to respond to emails requesting private information to avoid falling victims to phishing.

A recent case cracked by Dubai Police involved a network operating within and outside the country.

Dubai Police arrested 25 suspects who were mostly living illegally in the country for selling phone credits that are stolen by transferring money from a victim's bank account, said Brigadier Khalil Ebrahim Al Mansouri, Director of the General Department for Criminal Investigations of Dubai Police.

The scam involved sending an email to a user falsely claiming to be an established legitimate enterprise like a bank and requesting to update private information such as passwords and credit card, social security, and bank account numbers, that the legitimate organisation already has.

Police urge the public never to respond to such emails and always verify such requests with their banks. They are urged to keep in close contact with their banks in case any illegal money transfer happens.

System update

"The suspect would use a bank's logo and name to claim they are conducting updates on their system," said Lieutenant Colonel Ahmad Humaid Al Merri, Director of the Criminal Investigations Division within Dubai Police. An Asian suspect recently fell prey to the scam costing him Dh50,000.

A Bangladeshi suspect identified as M.S., 50, and his son, M.M.S., 25, were arrested along with over 20 labourers, who are all illegals. The father and son confessed to Dubai Police that they were working with an African suspect living abroad.

The African was responsible for sending emails to victims and then transferring their personal inputs to the Bangladeshi suspect to use the bank account numbers to transfer money from the victims' bank accounts to his phone as credits, said Lieutenant Colonel Al Merri.

The father and son who own a grocery shop with a name that means "integrity" cashed the credits by selling the phone credits.

Every time they transferred Dh500 from a victim's account to their mobile phones and later sold these credits, he said. He added that the two main suspects in Dubai used labourers to sell these credits.

The father and son had in their possession over Dh200,000 along with many mobile phones and phone cards (sim cards), he said.

The case is still under investigation to identify the external links.