Dubai: Police have arrested a man for creating fake accounts with women’s names on Snapchat to con youngsters into sending money and gifts, an official said on Sunday.
Brigadier Jamal Al Jallaf, Director of Criminal Investigation Department at Dubai Police, said that the man, from a Gulf country, created five Snapchat accounts of girls and deceived more than 50 people who sent gifts and money to him in the hope of developing a relationship.
“The man has a decent job and salary but he wanted to get more money and take advantage of social media platforms by posing as women on Snapchat to lure youngsters,” Brigadier Al Jallaf said.
Dubai Police said the suspect had been carrying on with the practice for two years until a girl, whiose picture he had used to create one of the accounts, recently reported the incident through the e-crime platform.
“She informed the officers she saw her pictures on a fake account with a different name on Snapchat.”
Not just one account
Cybercrimes patrols by Dubai Police upon investigation discovered that the suspect had other accounts on Snapchat and was conning people for two years.
Dubai Police said that youngsters were adding the suspect to their private accounts and that he used developed programmes to upload pictures and even speak with the victims.
“He create five fake accounts of girls. We named him the ‘Snapchat charmer’,” Brig Al Jallaf added.
The man was transferred to Dubai Public Prosecution.
Meanwhile, Captain Abdullah Al Shehi, Deputy Director of Cyber Investigation Department, said some social media influencers or celebrities don’t alert the authorities about fake accounts.
“They just alert their followers about fake accounts with their names while they need to report them to the police through the e-crime platform, so the people running those accounts can be arrested. The e-crime platform is for free and easy to use. People can make a complaint in a few minutes,” Captain Al Shehi said.
Stay alert, say police
Dubai Police has urged people using social media accounts to be careful and not to trust strangers or accepting invites from people they don’t know. They said people can use the e-crime platform to alert the police about crimes and suspicious accounts.