'Dubai Police can tackle crimes by hackers'

Senior Dubai Police officials have urged victims of ATM fraud to report the matter immediately to the nearest police station. In case their complaint is not registered for any reason, they can call the emergency number 999.

A senior police official told Emirates 24|7 that Dubai Police did not get any formal complaints from bank customers about the unauthorised transactions and said officials in any police station will register such cases on priority basis.

Affected banks have to follow certain procedures to record the transactions and report the crime to the Central Bank of the UAE and to the police in the respective emirates. There is good coordination between police departments in all emirates and when such complaints are registered, they are investigated with utmost seriousness. The UAE Central Bank had recently thwarted attempts to hack its websites.

Salah Omar, general manager of the Economic Crimes Wing of Dubai Police, said affected customers should immediately contact the police so that the culprits are stopped from repeating the crime and other customers do not lose their money.

“Such high tech hacking crimes did happen in the past, but we have caught them red handed. Dubai Police has a strong section to handle electronic crimes and in coordination with affected banks and the Central Bank of the UAE, such cases are investigated,” he said, adding that the nature of theft in the cyber age has changed drastically.
“Gone are the days when a thief will go with a knife to your house and steal money. Now they can steal your money using high tech methods. We coordinate with police in other countries to prevent such crimes.”

He said banks should inform their branches within and outside the UAE and the Central Bank when such cases are reported. “We have connection with the police force in other countries and can tackle hacking crimes.”

Major General Mohammed Saleh Badeh told Emirates 24|7: “Such cases should be immediately reported to the Economic Crimes Department of the police. Early reporting of the crime will help police to nab the culprits.”

Police officials have also revealed that in some cases the victims also share their secret bank codes with their friends abroad who withdraw the money and share it with them later. “In some cases, the victims are only from a particular country or region and no Emaratis or Arab customers are affected. Some people try to dupe the police and banks in this way,” he added.
 

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