Dubai Police Chief Brigadier General Jamal Salem Al-Jallaf revealed that fraudsters are impersonating important personalities through fictitious accounts on the networks to deceive citizens and residents of the country.

He said that Dubai Police received 697 complaints against fake accounts that used this type of fraud, and withholding them in cooperation with the competent authorities, while the TRA has blocked through the intelligent monitoring system more than 5000 suspicious accounts.

The General Directorate of Criminal Investigation and Investigation, in cooperation with the Security Awareness Directorate and the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA), launched a campaign to raise awareness among members of the community, under the patronage of the Commander-in-Chief of Dubai Police, Major General Abdullah Khalifa Al Marri. Social risk of these scammers.

Brigadier General Jamal Al-Jallaf said that the Department of Combating Cybercrime handled 126 complaints during the current year, against 133 complaints last year, 292 complaints in 2016, and 128 complaints in 2015. The electronic patrols of Dubai Police, Most of the bogus accounts have been spotted on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

He added that fraudsters are posing as important figures in the state. They try to confer some credibility on these accounts by adding many officials to these accounts and publishing official news about the state so that they gain the trust of the followers, Or charity projects, with the temptation to refund those donations double, and then take the money.

He pointed out that Dubai Police is working with its partners, the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) and the Dubai e-Security Center to make great efforts to curb these crimes. However, prevention remains an important factor in the protection of the community. He stressed the need to pay close attention to the people who communicate with them through the networks. It is impossible to ask an official or personal mission contributions or funds in this way.

Al-Jallaf explained that it was found by tracking those involved in the practices that they are from outside the country, between the ages of 30 and 35 years, and exploit the generosity of the population of the UAE, and some, especially new users of the networks, the ignorance of these fraudulent methods and draw them in this way.

The TRA's Director of Policies and Programs, Engineer Mohammed Al Zarouni, said that the TRA uses an intelligent monitoring system that tracks and closes these accounts in less than 24 hours in coordination with the service providers in the networks, whether Facebook or Twitter. And others, pointing out that the system has blocked more than 5000 accounts imaginary since the launch during the past year.

He added that there are important facts that call for the launching of such campaigns, including that the UAE occupies an advanced position in the use of the Internet by 92% of its population, while the proportion of users of social networks of the total Internet users about 95%, and the average number of hours spent by the pioneers of communication 2.56 hours, compared to the global average of 2.16 hours.

He pointed out that spending such time on the network has positive aspects, which is to strengthen social relations, but in turn makes the user vulnerable to many of the crimes that occur through those networks, including financial fraud with the names of celebrities and officials.

Exploitation of the victim

The deputy director of the General Department of Investigation and Criminal Investigation, Col. Mohammed Ahli, said that there are various stories used by fraudsters who have the characteristics of celebrities and officials. They all revolve in one orbit: exploiting the victim financially, such as convincing him that there is an Arab family living outside the state. Her children, the claim that he has been in an emergency position while abroad and can not communicate with anyone in the country to send him money, raises the victim's enthusiasm to help him in the hope of receiving a rewarding reward.

Dubai Police recorded 126 complaints this year and launched a campaign against fake accounts.