UAE residents have come forward with alarming accounts of losing significant sums, reaching tens of thousands of dirhams, to intricate telephone banking fraud. Victims, in a bid to prevent further incidents, are sharing their experiences with the public through The National.
One victim, identified as OP, a Latvian national, reported a loss of Dh200,000 ($54,458) after being contacted by an individual posing as a member of her bank’s Know Your Customer (KYC) team. The fraudster, leveraging OP’s recent transition from an employment visa to a golden visa, instructed her to update her Emirates ID on her banking app, a request that seemed legitimate to OP at the time.
“I assume this was an insider job because the person knew that my actual KYC details needed to be updated in the bank’s database,” OP conveyed to The National.
The scam unfolded rapidly, with the fraudster gaining control over OP’s banking app, leading to her savings and current accounts being emptied, alongside unauthorized cash advances and credit card transactions. A similar case was reported by another resident who lost Dh171,000 to these KYC banking fraudsters.
Dr. Mohammed Al Kuwaiti, head of the Cybersecurity Council, highlighted the scale of the issue, noting that the UAE blocked over 71 million attempted cyberattacks in just the first three quarters of the last year. Despite 61% of UAE residents considering themselves fraud-savvy, a Visa survey revealed that nine in 10 are likely to miss warning signs of online criminal activity.
Banks and the UAE Central Bank have issued stern warnings about these fraudulent activities, urging customers to be vigilant and not to share personal information or bank details through suspicious communication channels. The Central Bank has also highlighted the misuse of its name and employees in perpetuating such scams.
Experts in cybersecurity and fraud management, like Nisreen Sabri from HSBC UAE and cybersecurity firms like Kaspersky and Positive Technologies, emphasize the importance of not sharing personal or financial information, using complex and unique passwords, enabling two-factor authentication, and being cautious of unsolicited communications.
In light of these incidents, authorities and financial institutions are urging the public to report any suspicious activity and to adopt a cautious approach to safeguard against these increasingly sophisticated forms of financial fraud.