Dubai: Dubai Public Prosecution has referred three suspects to the Criminal Court of First Instance for electronically stealing large amounts of cash from bank customers who were outside the country, an official said on Wednesday.
Prosecutor-General Esmail Ali Madani, head of Public Funds Prosecution, said that two suspects bribed a third suspect who was working in a bank in order to compromise the customers’ data.
He said they paid Dh100,000 to the third suspect and the latter leaked the information about customers who had a minimum Dh300,000 in their accounts.
“During investigation, the two suspects confessed to illegally obtaining the money with assistance from the third suspect who is at large. They identified a customer who had Dh599,500 in her account and she was outside the country,” Madani said in a statement.
The suspects downloaded the smart application of the bank and used a SIM card of the victim’s phone to activate it and then transferred Dh583,000 to the current account of one of them.
The prosecution said the trio managed to get a replacement credit card issued by the bank after the first suspect posed as the bank customer and claimed the card was lost.
The first suspect received the new card from a delivery company.
“The first suspect activated the card and withdrew Dh22,000 from an ATM of the same bank. He bought gold jewellery worth Dh10,000 from two jewellery shops,” Madani said.
“The victim learnt about the scam and contacted the bank and Etisalat and alerted police.”
The suspects were charged with using unofficial documents and using them to hack into an electronic system, illegally obtaining others’ money, offering and accepting bribes.
