Gang arrested for hacking Dubai exchange companies’ accounts

Dubai: The Dubai Police have arrested a cyber crime gang who were able to transfer more than Dh7 million from exchange companies in Dubai, a senior official from Dubai Police said.

Major General Khamis Matter Al Mazeina, acting chief of Dubai Police, said on Sunday that a gang of Asians and Africans work with hackers in order to enter different websites and systems of different companies here in Dubai in order to transfer money inside and outside the country.

“Cheques worth more than Dh6 billion have been found with the gang after their arrest,” he said.

He said the gang was able to transfer more than Dh7 million from exchange companies in Dubai to their own accounts.

Colonel Salem Khalifa Al Rumaithi, deputy director of the General Department of Criminal and Investigation for research, said the incident happened early this month when police received complaints about a scam and transfer of $2 million from a company’s account.

“This was done through hacking the e-mails of this company by someone outside the UAE,” he said.

He said the hackers used to change the data of the transactions, billing, and then transfer the money into their accounts.

He said the first accused, an Asian identified as Kh. Q., used to receive the transferred funds.

“He owns three luxury cars which he bought from the proceeds of such crimes,” he said.

He said the role of the second suspect, another Asian identified as U.K., was to provide the gang with bank account numbers by creating fake companies on the internet and dealing with the victims’ accounts.

“After the process of converting the money credited to the first accused U.K. used to take 3 per cent of the money and give the remaining to an African man who was the mastermind.

According to Lt Colonel Saeed Al Hajeri, director of the electronic investigation department, the third suspect was identified as D.Q. from Africa.

“The role of this suspect was as a mediator between the gang members and manipulating the business processes and changing the bank accounts to any other account,” he said.

The suspect admitted that he was part of the Dh4 billion scam and another Dh6 million scam.

Lt Col Al Hajeri said Dubai Police had taken the necessary measures to obtain sufficient information from the rest of the gang members who operate outside the country in African countries through Interpol. Brigadier Khalil Ebrahim Al Mansouri, director of CID, said the police team worked on arresting the gang quickly.