Dubai Police have warned people about online scams that use influential people and the growing practice of “electronic begging,” which is especially common during Ramadan. Brigadier Saeed Al Hajri, who is in charge of the Cybercrime Combat Department at the General Department of Criminal Investigation for the Dubai Police, said that some crimes, like illegally collecting gifts online, tend to get worse during this time of year.

Al Hajri said that the police had recently caught a suspect who was asking for money by saying he was a charity worker. The person in question had a lot of money and bought homes in Dubai, according to investigations. Also, it was found that some non-profits were illegally trying to raise money by using social media stars to spread the word about their events.

In an interview with the online news site “Arab Cast,” Brigadier Al Hajri stressed that these illegal groups and people who wrongly say they work for them are skilled con artists. They pretend to be well-known people or groups in order to get personal information from people who don’t know any better. These people are usually motivated by kindness and compassion.

He said that these con artists use online campaigns and links to steal money while avoiding official routes for good causes like the UAE Red Crescent and the General Authority of Islamic Affairs and Endowments.

Al Hajri said that the authority has the legal power to deal with these kinds of cases, but they work with the police, who are better at building formal cases and taking the right steps. He told people not to work with groups that aren’t approved because they could be fronts for bigger crimes like money laundering, which could put donors at risk of being involved in illegal activities.

He said that an Arab suspect had made a website about a good cause and asked influential people to support it. For three years in a row, the website was able to get donations before it was caught. The suspect did business without a license, which led the officials to look into the influencers involved because they had given the suspect permission to do illegal things.

Brigadier Al Hajri also said that dating and social media sites have made it easier for cybercrime like online fraud, romance scams, and bullying to happen. Criminals often use a method called “social engineering,” in which they look at the online profiles of their victims to find weaknesses in them.

He warned that social engineering can lead to digital bullying, though these kinds of crimes are happening less often now that people are more aware of them. The Dubai Police have been very important in breaking up foreign crime networks. Al Hajri talked about a mission against a gang in another country that was after wealthy people in the Gulf area. The gang used influencers and actresses to get their victims into dangerous situations so they could record illegal content to demand money.

One victim, who went to the UAE, told Dubai Police about the crime. This led to the arrest of a social media influencer who was involved in the plan, and she is now being sued. Al Hajri said that hackers often target people who are feeling emotionally alone. He told people who are being blackmailed not to stay quiet because giving in to extortion demands can cause a lot of emotional and mental harm.

He told the story of a person who was blackmailed and lost over Dh900,000. He was abused over and over again until all of his savings were gone. The suspect lived abroad, but luckily, Dubai Police’s hacking team was able to identify him. The authorities worked together with the right groups in his country to catch him.