Phoney business: Is there no end to recharge scams?

Another day, another victim in the unending saga of phone recharge scams

Dubai: As a victim of a phone recharge scam, Filipina secretary Sarah L, 28, should be upset. Instead she's happy. The reason: She had nearly maxed her credit card. This meant the scammers couldn't take more than Dh300 from her account to top up an unknown du number.

"I was lucky the maximum credit limit was already reached… it's possible the hackers could have taken more money from me, if that were not the case," said the Dubai resident, the latest victim in a long list of phone recharge scams in the UAE. "I'm really shocked that this kind of thing is still happening, having read about similar incidents in the past from the papers. It's scary and I never thought it would happen to me," said Sarah, who reported the spooky transaction to the bank on August 16, the day after she discovered it. Sarah has been issued a new card by her bank. She said the bank has told her they will decide whether to refund the Dh300 or not, based on the outcome of their investigation.

Cyber crime surge

Of late, there has been a surge in cyber crimes. This year a staggering 271 such crimes were reported in Dubai in the first six months alone. Though a number of banks have limited the amount on online phone recharge transactions and other measures following a raft of complaints from victims conned in scams, authorities said cyber-hackers are still able to launch attacks.

 

Officials said hackers today use varying approaches to pull off their caper, and are usually motivated by money. Reports said Asian street hawkers in different emirates allegedly buy credits at over 50 per cent discount siphoned off from victims by hackers - and retail the credit at full price to people.

On August 18, at a seminar on cyber threats to financial institutions, Mohammad Nasser Al Ghanim, TRA director-general, said: "Threats have evolved to bypass classical protections adopted by many of these organisations. The landscape of the attacks has shifted from phishing, into malaware that mimics users' behaviour to trick the institutions."

According to him, there is no single solution to mitigate the threats. "However, it takes collaboration, knowledge sharing, and joint efforts to eradicate these issues," he said.

• 271: The number of cyber crimes cases reported in the first six months

 Source: Gulf News