Abu Dhabi: Three men have been arrested for their involvement in two separate cases of mobile phone fraud in which they allegedly sent text-messages to members of the public informing them they had won a prize, Abu Dhabi Police said on Saturday.
Posing as a mobile-phone service company, the suspects allegedly asked the victims for money transfers to complete the transactions necessary to receive their fake prizes.
The suspects allegedly defrauded their victims of Dh67,000 including Dh14,000 in bank transfers and telephone credit cards in the first case alone while a total of Dh53,000 was taken from victims involved in the second case, according to Colonel Dr Rashid Mohammad Borshid, Director of the Criminal Investigation Department in Abu Dhabi Police.
A 26-year-old farmer, Sh.R. was caught after an Italian reported that he had been scammed by a man claiming he had won half a million dirhams.
Borshid said the farmer had been staying in the country without a valid visa under a different name and confessed to the crime after being caught in Ajman with the help of the local police.
After Sh.R.’s home was searched, 78 Sim-cards registered under different peoples’ names were found along with notebooks containing telephone numbers belonging to the public, several mobile phones, credit cards, bank transfer receipts, ID cards and money in several currencies among other items.
In the second case, laundry-worker G.B., aged 29 and cleaner M.A., aged 25, were caught in Sharjah after a Pakistani victim reported falling for the same scam.
Fourteen telephone Sim cards were found along with several mobile phones, credit cards and money transfer receipts were found in the second and third suspects’ homes.
Borshid urged the public to be aware of such scams as the police had previously warned against falling for them through awareness campaigns in cooperation with the Ministry of Interior.
