One of my friends recently had a strange experience in Dubai. A bank account was opened by this person and a credit card was subsequently issued to him. A few days later, there were phone calls on the cellphone number my friend had mentioned in the bank records.
The calls were apparently from ‘Dubai Police’, asking for the details of the credit card. The person, being naive to the system, assumed it to be a routine in Dubai, and gave the card details to the caller, and, sure enough, within no time lost everything that he had in his bank account.
Such scams are common, but what was surprising was that this happened in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which has very strict laws. Most probably, these fraudsters were operating not from the UAE but from some other country having access to the banks in Dubai.
People have to outsmart the system, but then organisations need to upgrade their security and advise their clients who are new to the system about such potential scams.
The authorities concerned in the government as well as the banks should take effective remedial measures so that innocent people may not get deprived of their hard-earned money, as being cheated is probably the worst feeling in a person’s life.
JAVAID USMAN
ISLAMABAD
