(MENAFN- Khaleej Times) Eighty men, suspected of defrauding people through phone scams that promise big cash prizes, have been caught and detained in Abu Dhabi since the beginning of 2019, authorities said on Sunday.
The Abu Dhabi Police said the gangs, consisting mostly of Asian men, were arrested in separate incidents.
Brigadier Imran Ahmed Al Mazrouei, director of CID at the Abu Dhabi Police, said the suspects allegedly made phone calls to randomly targeted residents, promising them bogus cash prizes.
In one of the incidents in February, the Abu Dhabi Financial Prosecutors said they had taken 24 Asian men to court after investigations suggested they were scammers who had been claiming that they were working for big companies in the UAE.
Prosecutors said the suspects called a resident and told him that he had won a cash prize worth half a million dirhams. The men reportedly asked him to wire some money as "processing charge for the prize". To convince the victim that the prize was "genuine", they allegedly gave him a "secret number on his SIM card".
Investigations showed that in many of the cases, fraudsters had asked their victims to transfer phone credits as part of the scam.
As soon as the credits were transferred, the callers' phones were switched off. This is when victims realise that they have been scammed, according to recent reports.
"People should always ignore phone calls and messages that tell them they have won huge cash prizes and ask them to pay some fee by wiring money or by transferring phone credits," said Brig Al Mazrouei.
The police have urged the public to immediately report such incidents and contact the security service centre on 8002626 or sms2828.
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