Dubai: Scammer sends 'warning SMS' about credit card expiry, jailed

The Dubai Criminal Court has sentenced a man, 32, who is of Asian origin, to a two-month jail term followed by deportation for forging official documents and initiating fraud against a bank’s customers and a telecommunications company.

According to police records, the telecommunications company received several complaints of a gang trying to obtain confidential numbers of its clients.

The accused sent text messages to victims telling them that their bank cards had been suspended. The text also informed the victims that they had to renew their cards by sharing their secret personal identification number (PIN).

A witness, who works as a coordinator in the telecom company’s fraud department, testified that an internal investigation was initiated to ascertain the nature of the scam.

The probe revealed that a gang had forged official documents to make it look like they owned a company in a free zone. At least 10 different phone numbers were used by the fraudsters to carry out the scam.

The witness also testified that the telecom company had disconnected service to these phone numbers as soon as the crime came to light.