Dubai has been witnessing a rise in scams over the past year.

It’s no longer just individuals popping up with malicious intent, but rather a full-fledged business that authorities are attempting to crack down on.

Besides relentless messages and emails, scammers have now begun making phone calls to their potential victims, mainly by assuming the identity of the Dubai Police

If it’s not you, it’s been someone you know. Incessant calls, texts, and emails. Each scam attempt looks smarter than the previous one, all capable of luring you in if you’re not too careful.

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These scams are no longer one-off incidents, but rather the effect of an entire scam industry growing in South East Asia

An investigative article on VICE highlights how Dubai’s success as a modern economy with access to the global economy makes it a business-friendly climate, but the downside to this is that it also makes the city more vulnerable to scams.

Talking about how these scams operate, the article reads, “They targeted both people in China and elsewhere, starting with phone messages and moving to calls; for international scams, they employed some non-Chinese people to handle the phone.”

And the scammers don’t just take ‘No’ for an answer, as told to Lovin Dubai by Anagha and Meeranath.

The ‘Dubai Police’ scammers first approached Anagha accusing her of potentially sending money to a terrorist organisation in Afghanistan

The scammers, using the number +971 52 771 8330 claimed they were attempting to find out who transferred the money and required her cooperation in the investigation. Questions included:

• Which banks she had accounts in? Anagha provided one fake and one real bank name.
• Did she receive an OTP? In 6 minutes, she had been spammed with 4 texts from ‘DubaiPolice’, ‘ADPOLICE’, ‘UAE PASS’, and ‘FAB’

She was almost convinced by the ADPOLICE text when the scammer asked her to verify her card number, a detail most banks already have. “I understood something was up and informed them I would rather go to the Police station and get myself verified in person.”

After repeated (empty) threats that she would go to prison, they hung up. The scammers attempted to call her again- but she refused to pick up.

In Meeranath’s experience, the scammers even resorted to verbal abuse besides a constant barrage of calls

She received 6 calls in total just yesterday, from +971 50 133 4039 and +971 54 389 1120 asking her to verify her bank details with the ‘DubaiPolice.’

“Im not picking [the] call and they continue calling me many, many time[s]. Each time [a] different number and I keep on blocking.”

 

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A post shared by Dubai Police شرطة دبي (@dubaipolicehq)

But UAE authorities are working swiftly to catch the men behind these scams

The Dubai Police are constantly putting out warnings and reminders to people to stop interacting with scammers. Residents are instead advised to report these numbers directly to the cyber cell.

Besides these, authorities are cracking down on several scams as they crop up, even capturing major syndicates.

READ NEXT: 11 Phone Scammers Have Been Jailed After Sending Fraudulent Messages To Residents

#أخبارنا | #شرطة_أبوظبي تضبط 4 عصابات احتيال مصرفي بالتعاون مع شرطتي دبي وعجمان@DubaiPoliceHQ @ajmanpoliceghq #أخبار_شرطة_أبوظبيhttps://t.co/nDx1pOIJ9N pic.twitter.com/BjesAVrKQB

— شرطة أبوظبي (@ADPoliceHQ) November 23, 2019

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