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Dubai man steals another's photo for dating profile

Sharjah - The man insisted he did not expect his actions to cause harm to the complainant, or damage his relations with his fiancée and her family, calling it as "just entertainment" on his part.

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The Dubai Police's Criminal Investigation Department arrested an Arab who passed off another, more handsome man's photo as his own on a dating website. The man whom he 'impersonated' had reported it to the police.

The suspect started contacting women using the photo of the complainant, who said this led to his fiancée breaking up their engagement.

Salem Salemin, deputy director of the General Department of Cybercrime at the Dubai Police, reported that the complainant reported it when his friends and relatives informed about his photograph posted on a popular dating site, on the profile of a person unknown to him.

It also led the complainant's fiancée to believe he was contacting other women and having affairs behind her back, and she subsequently cancelled their engagement.

The police arrested the suspect shortly after, who confessed during police interrogation that he wanted to meet and talk to women, but didn't want his friends and family to know that he was on a dating site. He then looked for a good looking person's photo, to attract girls. So when he found the picture of the complainant, who was not known to him, he posted it on his profile and began chatting with girls.

However, he insisted he did not expect his actions to cause harm to the complainant, or damage his relations with his fiancée and her family, calling it as "just entertainment" on his part.

Salemin stated that man was referred to the Public Prosecutor's office for further investigation and his profile on the dating site was taken down. He noted that such malicious acts of electronic crime, whether intentional or unintentional, had seen a spurt in the recent period.

Major-General Khalil Ibrahim Al Mansouri, Assistant Commander-in-Chief of the Dubai Police for Criminal Investigation Affairs, said that the misuse of modern technologies by such people is regrettable and caused harm to others. The Cybercrime department focused on such acts, trained to identify and arrest those who abuse others' identity and privacy in many ways.

Major-General Al Mansouri revealed that cybercrime has taken on many forms lately, with most of the offences resulting from personal disputes between relatives, friends or employers and employees. This led to crimes of abuse and defamation, often causing loss of reputation, besides fraud, breach of trust etc.

The police official called on individuals to protect themselves from cyber-infiltrations and use privacy features on their social and other online profiles at all times.

amira@khaleejtimes.com