11 conmen arrested in Bahrain mobile phone scam
Manama, July 15, 2014
Eleven conmen who scammed mobile phone users in Bahrain out of BD22,000 ($58,055) have been arrested.
The suspects, believed to be Pakistanis, told Bahrainis and residents they had won cash prizes in a raffle draw or competition run by a telecommunication firm they worked for, said a report in the Gulf Daily News (GDN), our sistre publication.
They tricked their victims into divulging personal information, including credit card numbers, and asked them to transfer funds into foreign bank accounts to finalise the procedures before collecting their "prizes".
"Among the victims of these fraudsters some were educated people with university degrees, who could have checked the truth behind the claims by inquiring if there was indeed a telecom company that had announced such a competition and why they had won the so-called prize," said Criminal Investigation and Forensic Science director-general Brigadier Abdulrahman Sinan.
"They could have then ignored such messages to avoid getting cheated."
He said an investigation was launched after information about the gang surfaced.
All 11 suspects were identified and arrested after obtaining warrants from the Public Prosecution, he added.
"The scam involved 22 cases, in which the gang managed to collect around BD22,000 and a large number of telephone chips," he told the Interior Ministry's Al Amn magazine.
"The suspects and the items seized from them were referred to the Public Prosecutor.
"They were working in Bahrain under different sponsors as labourers or employees."
He said the fraudsters did not have links to groups abroad.
"It is a local gang that has no foreign connection and had planned the scam in Bahrain itself," he added.
"It is a group of criminals who know each other and are from the same country and decided to make big money through such a crime without realising police would track them down."
Brig Sinan urged people to ignore such calls to avoid being victims of elaborate scams. - TradeArabia News Service
