Alert against falling victim to ‘hug the Gulf Cup’ scam

It seems the fraudsters are becoming more creative. In one of the latest scams, they are taking advantage of the Kingdom’s recent soccer victory. Last week Bahrain stunned Saudi Arabia (1-0) to lift Arabian Gulf Cup.

The new scam perpetrated by fraudsters starts with the claim that a 100BD fee would ensure a secret “Hug the Gulf Cup” experience. According to the scammers, the people can deposit BD100 to a certain bank account to reserve their right to hug the ‘Gulf Cup’.

The scam comes at a time when both Bahrainis and expatriates are still experiencing the euphoria of winning the Gulf Cup along with National Day celebrations. SMSes have been sent to people across the Kingdom advertising the fake offer. A phone number and a website link were also mentioned in the SMS.

The phone number, when called, did not return an answer.  Recently, another SMS scam had come under probe. Text messages were noted to have been sent to citizens and residents by fraudsters who were claiming to be Bahraini security authorities. Fraudsters were sending messages to the public about bank transactions claiming to be from the Crime Investigation Department.

The Ministry of Interior would immediately issue a warning to the public to remain alert and not be scammed by such fraudsters. “The Director-General of Anti-corruption and Economic and Electronic Security has warned of text messages sent by fraudsters claiming to be official security authorities, requesting to call them back to process their bank applications,” the Ministry of Interior stated at the time.

“The official has called to not deal with such scam messages or provide source with any bank and personal details, along with clarifying the matter from reliable officials sources,” the ministry added.