Dubai: A Dubai-based woman who reported a credit card hacking incident to the police was surprised when she discovered that her husband used her card to pay his girlfriend’s traffic fines.
According to Captain Abdullah Al Shehi, Deputy Director of Cyber-Crime Department at Dubai Police, the police received a complaint from a woman about a stranger who used her credit card to pay traffic fines.
After investigation, the woman who used the credit card was summoned. It turned out the credit card used to pay the fines belonged to the man’s wife.
“It was a strange case because the wife didn’t know that her husband used her credit card to pay his friend’s traffic fines. The friend didn’t know that he was married and the wife didn’t know that he had a girlfriend,” Captain Al Shehi said.
Transaction alert
The wife received a notification from the bank about a transaction on her credit card.
She called the bank and froze the card before reporting the incident to Dubai Police. At the time, she believed her credit card was stolen.
“We tracked the purchase transaction and identified the woman who used the card. She was summoned to the Cyber-Crime Department for questioning and the surprise was she didn’t know her male friend was married.”
Rare case
Meanwhile, Colonel Saeed Al Hajiri, Director of Cyber-Crime Department at Dubai Police, said that it was a rare case.
“The problem is from the bank customer who sometimes uses credit cards for purchases through unsecured sites offering products or brands at cheap prices. They put the card details on these sites but don’t know there are gangs that can hack the system cards and steal the card details and money,” Col Al Hajiri said.
Dubai Police has urged community members to stay vigilant and make sure they use only secure sites for their purchases and not reveal any of passwords or code numbers to strangers over the phone.
