UAE: Over 50% increase in cybercrime, electronic fraud reports this year, says top Sharjah Police official

Major General Saif Al Zari Al Shamsi, Commander-in-Chief of Sharjah Police, highlighted the importance of launching proactive preventive initiatives that aim to protect society from various types of cybercrime.

This came during the visit of Major General Al Shamsi, accompanied by a number of senior officers in the command, to the "Be Aware" platform – launched by the Departments of Criminal Investigation, Media and Public Relations to educate the public on fraud and electronic blackmail – by broadcasting awareness messages to community members via " Cinema Screens", in cooperation with "Fox Cinema".

The Commander-in-Chief of Sharjah Police said the awareness campaign was launched to highlight the importance of prevention in deterring cybercrime, praising the efforts of the Sharjah Police's Criminal Investigations Department in organising the campaign.

"The platform will be transferred at a later period to a number of schools and universities in the emirate to achieve the best possible benefit from it, and its outputs will also be evaluated to study opportunities for improving its efficacy  in the future for the benefit of society," he added.

For his part, Colonel Omar Ahmed Abu Al Zoud, Deputy Director of the Criminal Investigations Department at Sharjah Police, said that the first half of this year witnessed an increase in the number of reports submitted for cybercrimes, reaching 351 reports, compared to 117 reports in the same period last year, adding that electronic fraud topped these crimes, increasing from 11 reports to 60 reports in the same period.

He noted that the "Be Aware" platform represents a cyber corridor that includes six stations, each of which focuses on one of the methods used in electronic crimes that begin with electronic blackmail, then electronic hacking, leading to electronic games, which in turn is witnessing a large demand among young people.

The Sharjah Police called on the public to not give in to any threat or blackmail from fraudsters and to report any crime through the Sharjah Police website "www.shjpolice.gov.ae", or by contacting the numbers "0559992158" or "065943228", or by calling the number /999/ allocated for emergency cases.