The pandemic has opened doors for new types of online fraud

Muscat: Fraudsters are taking advantage of people’s spending more time online during the pandemic to steal money and vital information such as credit card details from them.

With people who are not used to shopping online compelled to do so due to the COVID-19, fraudsters have set up fake companies that take advantage of their inexperience of the internet, advertising their services on social media to lure unsuspecting people into parting with their personal details. These fake ads are also inserted into online links, which open when people click on them.

“Victims unfortunately fall prey to these kinds of fake ads that are found online…these are clear signs of electronic fraud,” said Major Yahya bin Talib Al Balushi, the Royal Oman Police’s Assistant Director of the Department of Crime Prevention at the Directorate General of Inquiries and Criminal Investigations.
“The main goal of such crimes is to obtain material profits.

“These are sought through organising fake investment companies or fake trading platforms,” he added. “In such cases, people who invest their money don’t often report the crime to us early, because they feel their profits will come to them after a while, and accordingly wait for them.”

“The coronavirus pandemic has had a clear impact on all the aspects of our lives, leading to many companies making their services available online,” he explained. “This pandemic was like opening a new door for scammers, and inventing fraudulent methods to seize bank data that belonged to the victims.”
Al Balushi asked people to report instances of online crimes at the earliest, saying, “Sadly, the victims will never see this profit, and communicating to us the nature of this crime is also delayed.”

Al Balushi was speaking on an ROP awareness programme called Ain A’Sahira (Arabic for ‘The Unblinking Eye’), where he spoke of how people can remain vigilant against online scammers. He added that the COVID pandemic, which has strongly impacted everyone’s lives, enabled fraudsters to take advantage of the increased time people were spending online.

“These fraudsters simulate or mimic the items that genuine companies buy and sell online,” he explained.

“They devised illegal methods to steal the bank data of victims. Some victims unknowingly send their bank data to these scammers, by taking pictures of their ATM cards and uploading it onto these fake websites.

“They might also unknowingly fill in a form which asks for this information, without knowing who is actually asking them for this data,” he added. “They do this without verifying the publisher of the form.”

Al Balushi added that there is no one age group that was more susceptible to these scams.

Awareness programmes

Rather, stopping themselves and others from falling prey to, it needs to be done through regular awareness programmes, while parents ensure they keep a close eye on what their children are doing.
“However, children under the age of 18 are the most risky category when it comes to scams,” he said. “I ask their parents, and everyone else, to not remain silent about electronic fraud, but instead, to please come forward and report this to the relevant authorities in the Sultanate.”

“The Directorate General of Inquiries and Criminal Investigations is making extensive efforts to deal with reports of electronic fraud that have undergone qualitative developments and are being carried out through modern methods,” explained the major. “These crimes have seen a 25 percent increase over the last two years.”