Sharjah/Dubai: Police have arrested five men in Dubai for operating an illegal telemarketing racket from the emirate.
The suspects were caught in a raid on their hideout from where they called unwitting victims over the phone and asked them to transfer money to their telephones in return for ‘valuable prizes’, police said on Tuesday.
Lieutenant Colonel Mohammad Al Dhanhani, Head of Criminal and Investigation Department at the Eastern Region office of Sharjah Police, said these telemarketing conmen used to demand bank account details and passwords from their victims on the pretext of depositing their ‘grand prize’ in their accounts, after which they promptly stole money from the accounts.
The Pakistani suspects trapped their victims by falsely claiming to be calling from the telecommunications firm, Etisalat. The men in custody have been referred to public prosecution, said police.
Police formed a team and tracked down the culprits after receiving a tip off from one of the victims in Khor Fakkan, officials said.
The suspects, operating from a rented an apartment in Al Baraha area in Dubai, were nabbed in a raid conducted in cooperation with Dubai Police.
During the raid, police found a large number of SIM cards and mobile phones which were used in the crime. The suspects used to destroy the SIM cards they used to call up their victims, in order to escape police arrest.
