Dubai: Three men have been accused of obtaining a duplicate SIM card using forged papers, hacking into a businessman’s mobile banking application and stealing Dh1 million.
The Indian trio — a 38-year-old worker, a 27-year-old visitor and a 26-year-old mechanic — allegedly visited an etisalat outlet and claimed that one of them had lost a SIM card in May.
Upon being asked to fill in the required details on the form to obtain a replica SIM, according to records, the trio provided the businessman’s details and his phone number.
Then they used the replica SIM to hack into the businessman’s bank account through the mobile banking application and transferred Dh1 million from his account to another account.
Once the businessman realised that some money had been withdrawn from his account, he contacted the bank and was informed that the transfer happened through the smart phone banking application.
Police were informed that the money had been transferred to an Indian man’s account.
Interrogations revealed that the 38-year-old and the 27-year-old collected the money in the form of cheques that were issued to them by the Indian man.
Prosecutors accused the Indian trio of forging papers to obtain a replica SIM card and hacking into the businessman’s banking application to steal his money.
The three suspects were not present at the Dubai Court of First Instance where they were scheduled to enter their pleas on Monday.
According to the charge-sheet, prosecutors said the Indian trio conspired with two or more than other suspects, who remain at large.
A banker told prosecutors that the businessman called in to find out why his money went missing from his account.
“After checking out on his account operations, we discovered that the money had been transferred via the mobile banking application to another account. According to the bank’s findings, the mobile banking application had been activated at a date recent to the incident using the businessman’s contact number … then cheques were issued to the 38-year-old and the 27-year-old,” he testified to prosecutors.
A police lieutenant told prosecutors that they first arrested the worker, who admitted to obtaining the replica SIM.
“He confessed that he handed the replica SIM to one of the runaway suspects, who paid him money. The visitor was apprehended while trying to cash one of the cheques. The 27-year-old claimed that he had agreed with a man [who remains at large] to cash the cheque for him against a certain commission. He also alleged that one of the runaway suspects gave him a number of bank cards and their pin codes to withdraw cash,” he said.
Presiding judge Urfan Omar will sentence the defendants in absentia on December 29.
