Sharjah: Police have arrested seven men for an illegal telemarketing scam that has long plagued the UAE despite aggressive police efforts.
The suspects, police said on Tuesday, were caught in a police raid on their hideout where scammers were phoning unwitting victims and asking them to transfer money to their telephones in return for valuable prizes.
The telemarketing thieves were selling the mobile credit they received from victims to other people at very cheap rates and then dividing the criminal proceeds among themselves, the police said.
The Pakistani suspects falsely claimed to be calling from telecommunications firm etisalat.
The Criminal Investigation Department at Sharjah Police formed a team after receiving a tip off.
The arrests are part of an ongoing string of similar arrests by police of criminals involved in the scam in the last decade.
In December 2013, Sharjah Police arrested a four-member Asian gang for conning victims and transferring etisalat mobile credit and later selling it to others at cheap rates. That same year, police received more than 5,600 complaints about phone scams.
In the latest case, Sharjah Police said seven suspects called people and then disappeared after they obtained the money.
The police team traced the scammers’ calls to their residence and a police raid ensued at a residence in Sharjah.
The raid netted police a large number of mobile phones, 66 SIM cards as well as printed written phrases in English and Arabic — said to be used for the scam.
The suspects are in custody and have been referred to the public prosecution.
Lieutenant Colonel Faisal Bin Nasar, Chief Deputy of Criminal Investigation Department at Sharjah Police, said anyone who has fallen victim to the telephone scam can call 901 or 065943210 .
How the scam works
Callers, usually identifying themselves as etisalat staff, ask victims to confirm if a number sequence on their mobile SIM card matches the “lucky number”.
The victims are unaware that the sequence is the same for all such SIM cards.
After the phone credit is transferred, the callers’ phone numbers go dead.
Etisalat has repeatedly warned the public that it runs no such promotion and has urged customers to call 101 to verify any calls they get. One former victim who lost Dh900 to scammers told Gulf News that he received a call saying he had won Dh200,000 in an etisalat raffle.
The caller asked him to confirm the SIM number and provided him a “winning coupon number” before directing him to a Dubai bank to claim the fictitious prize.
