Abu Dhabi: A gang of four Asians have been arrested for hacking credit cards online and stealing customer information, Abu Dhabi Police said on Wednesday.
The suspects skimmed details of credit cards from around the world and diverted over Dh1 million of funds. They obtained the credit card details via international piracy and hacking websites and transferred the credit card funds to fake cards, such as shopping cards, with which they purchased goods across various shopping and entertainment outlets in the UAE. Each fake card was used for a single transaction and then discarded to avoid the original credit card being blocked or the gang being traced.
Brigadier Dr Rashid Bu Rasheed, director of the Department of Criminal Investigation at Abu Dhabi Police, said that a team of criminal investigation experts in electronic fraud and anti-piracy operations began investigations after receiving reports from international banks about their clients residing in other countries whose credit cards were showing up transactions at shopping outlets in Abu Dhabi.
The team managed to track down the gang, which was found to have been communicating with international hackers specialised in selling and copying credit card information.
Brig. Bu Rasheed said that, besides the gang members, an accomplice working as an operations manager, was also arrested for his role in the crime.
Cyber crime experts at the Abu Dhabi Police Department of Criminal Investigation managed to unravel the complex criminal operations within 24 hours, police said.
The gang was arrested and equipment including copying devices, computers and programming software used to steal credit card funds was seized.
The suspects were referred to judicial authorities for interrogation.
Bu Rasheed urged the public not to give their credit card details to online shopping sites, and to be extra cautious about the authenticity of such sites. He also warned that international hackers use complex and deceptive tactics to steal funds in a manner that cannot be easily identified or distinguished by online shoppers.
