DUBAI Abu Dhabi Police have launched an investigation into a suspected hacking attack in which a Dubai resident’s credit card was illegally used to make 20 online payments to the police in the capital, XPRESS has learnt.
The probe was launched after a Dubai-based engineer learnt that a hacker had siphoned off more than Dh25,000 from his credit card in a single day earlier this month.
Rene T. Hinolan, a Filipino mechanical engineer, said the incident took place on July 3.
“My bank had called me to ask whether I had authorised the use of my credit card for 20 transactions amounting to Dh25,130 with the Abu Dhabi Police. I told them I did not. I was shocked when they told me that I may have fallen victim to a hacker,” said Hinolan, who lives with his wife and three children in Al Baraha.
It was not immediately clear whether the amount hacked was used to pay for traffic fines, but there was only a single “merchant” in all the 20 transactions — Abu Dhabi Police.
An official from Abu Dhabi Police confirmed they are currently working on at least one case of credit card fraud, but did not provide details due to its currently being under investigation.
Hinolan, said the amount of the transactions ranged from Dh900 to Dh2,400. His card had a credit limit of Dh30,000. When he went to the bank to sign a dispute form the next day, he faced another shocker: “A colleague of mine also filed a similar dispute form over similar fraudulent transactions.”
A bank spokesperson confirmed to XPRESS that the hacking incident did take place and they were working with authorities
Numerous hacking attacks have hit victims in the UAE, leaving massive financial damage, but the recent case is unusual.
Hinolan suspects his credit card may been used to pay for traffic fines in Abu Dhabi. “But I couldn’t have incurred such fines because I rarely visit Abu Dhabi and I don’t drive.”
The UAE Central Bank issued a circular on February 1 calling on all the country’s banks to beef up their defences against hackers. Experts at the Central Bank were reported to have foiled attempts to hack and sabotage the bank’s website.
A computer expert told XPRESS: “Tracing the circumstances surrounding these transactions seems like a straightforward forensics job. Whoever has done this did not think it through properly. He may have been the dumbest hacker — robbing someone in order to pay the police.”
Netherlands-based Christiaan Beek, Team Leader of Incident Response & Forensics for online security firm McAfee, said: “A hacking job of this sort would not be a smart thing to do. There are several ways you can trace the perpetrators. If he the hacker used the cards to pay for traffic fines, tracing those involved would seem to be a straightforward job – through the vehicle licence plates or maybe even insurance companies.”
