Dubai: UAE citizens and residents continue to fall victim to cyber blackmail despite multiple awareness campaigns launched by Dubai Police and The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA).
Lt Col Saeed Al Hajiri, Director of the Cyber Investigation Department at Dubai Police, said that Dubai Police and TRA are launching a new intensive campaign to stem the rise in cases in the last two years.
“There were 73 cases of sexual cyber blackmail registered with Dubai Police in 2014 and 59 in 2013. Al Ameen service received 212 complaints regarding sexual cyber blackmail in 2014 and 80 in 2013,” he said.
Dubai Police handled a total of 1,549 cybercrime cases in 2014.
In 2014, there were 248 cases of fraud, 163 cases of information security breaches, 389 cases of blackmail, 235 cases involving electronic payments and 514 other cybercrime cases.
More than 190 people were arrested in cybercrime-related cases in Dubai last year.
The new campaign, which will include lectures, the first of which will be held on Wednesday at Al Rashidiya Majlis, aims to increase public awareness of the dangers lurking on social media and emphasise the importance of keeping personal details and information private.
“Most cyber criminals who use this method target people who seem to be wealthy, for example people who post public photos of them travelling, post photos of luxury cars and belongings …etc, because all they want is the money.” Lt Col Al Hajiri explained.
He said before 2013, the majority of the victims were women, but now a lot of men get involved too. He added that there isn’t a specific age group that is more prone to falling prey to this crime as “they can be children or 50-year-olds”.
While most of the criminals operate from outside the country, Dubai Police have arrested some that were operating from within.
“Anyone who falls victim to sexual cyber blackmail must report it to the police immediately and refrain from paying the money asked of him/her.”
The victim’s privacy is maintained and the authorities work on damage control, before moving to determine and catch the criminal.
Hamad Obaid Al Mansouri, TRA Director-General, said in a statement that the campaign will focus on students in secondary schools, public and private universities and their parents so they stay alert and protected from being victims to this kind of threat.
The campaign will also include conducting surveys on blackmail victims to figure out the circumstances and reasons behind this phenomenon to enable the parties concerned to develop a well-defined policy to control the phenomena.
Gaith Al Mazeina, Acting Security Quality Services Manager, said at the conference that people should not trust stangers online as they can have ulterior motives.
“People should also use their privacy setting and avoid posting or sharing private information that you would not like to fall into the wrong hands online,” Al Mazeina said.
Children should also be aware of these dangers and parents should only allow them to use such devices in public spaces such as the living room where they can monitor them, and not in the privacy of their rooms.
The growth and development of online space is abused by criminals who take advantage of this growth to harm other people, violate their privacy and then use their personal data and pictures to obtain financial gain illegally.
The TRA recently launched a programme during Idex that acts as an early detection system, which alerts the TRA when certain words of a sexual nature are used in cyber space. This helps the technical resource investigate any potential threats and eliminate them.
