UAE: Suspects in Dh1 million electronic fraud arrested within hours

Ras Al Khaimah: Three suspects were arrested within hours after Ras Al Khaimah Police received a report by a company that it was the victim of a phishing scam worth 281,000 euros (around Dh1.077 million).

The gang members were arrested in Dubai in cooperation with Dubai Police.

They had alledgedly impersonated the supplier of a company in Ras Al Khaimah, asking the company via email to transfer a payment to the supplier’s “new bank account”. The email appeared genuine as it was related to any ongoing deal between them and seemed to have been sent from the usual email address. The company transferred the amount, worth 281,000 euros (around Dh1.077 million).

Payment not received

Day later, when the company and the real supplier followed up the payment, it emerged that the supplier had not its bank account and the payment was never received. A representative of the company then reported the fraud to Al Jazeera Al Hamra Comprehensive Police Station in Ras Al Khaimah.

The report was immediately referred to the Criminal Investigation Department - Technical Crimes Branch. Following security procedures, the police formed a team from the Criminal Investigation Division (CID) trained to deal with technical crimes of this nature, following which a plan to track down the perpetrators was laid.

Within few hours, the team was able to track the perpetrators in emirate of Dubai, where they were swiftly arrested in cooperation with Dubai Police.

Other similar frauds were also discovered through this case, amounting to millions of dirhams.

The suspects have been referred to the competent authorities to take the necessary legal measures against them.

Major General Ali Abdullah bin Alwan Al Nuaimi, Commander-in-Chief of Ras Al Khaimah Police, warned community members and business owners against phishing, including email phishing.

What is email phishing?

The victim receives an email and prompts them to take urgent action, such as the fraudster impersonating a trusted source, asking the victim to change the sender’s bank account details and replace it with a new account. The victim takes action to transfer the money to the new account without doubting the credibility of the person or sender of the email.

Maj Gen Al Nuaimi appealed to community members and businesses persons not to initiate transactions and bank transfers except after verifying the identity of the companies’ representatives by telephone or meetings.

He stressed that fraudsters deceive their victims with lies, such as closing accounts, changing their names, or replacing them with new accounts, or with any of the “flimsy pretexts to prey on the person or entity they target”.

Meanwhile, Brigadier Tariq Mohammed bin Saif, Acting Director General of Police Operations at Ras Al Khaimah Police, explained that the details of the electronic phishing case go back when Al Jazeera Al Hamra Comprehensive Police Station in Ras Al Khaimah received report from a company working in the field of electronics stating that it had been subjected to an electronic phishing operation.