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3 scammers arrested in Dubai for issuing hundreds of illegal SIM cards, financial fraud

Dubai - The trio issued 400 SIM cards in a day.

A three-member gang stood on trial before the Dubai Criminal Court for illegally issuing hundreds of SIM cards and using them for phone scams.
One of the defendants, a mobile store owner, issued the SIM cards under the customer's name without their knowledge, Emarat Al Youm reported.
A witness in the case, an African worker, said he was surprised to be brought in for questioning by the police. The witness said that he went to a shop in Jebel Ali to buy a new SIM card. They took a copy of his Emirates ID and fingerprint but the shopkeeper told him that the system failed and they won't be able to issue the SIM card.
The victim later discovered that the defendants had reportedly issued a SIM card under his name without his knowledge.
Once the SIM card was issued, it was used to make financial scam calls.
An Arab national fell for the gang's scheme. He received a phone call from a man claiming to be an employee at the prize department of one of the telecommunications companies.
He had won a Dh200,000 lottery, the caller claimed. The defendant then asked him to transfer pre-paid phone balance worth of Dh600 and copy of his Emirates ID, which he did. Then he asked him for an additional Dh2,500 but the victim refused.
The accuser transferred the call to another scammer, who reportedly posed as his manager, who convinced him to transfer Dh4,500. The victim realised that this was a phone scam when the defendant asked him to transfer an additional Dh8,500.
When he asked them to return all his money, they stopped responding to his calls.
According to the investigation, one of the defendants said that he issued 400 SIM cards a day.