Scammers posed as CID target victims in Bahrain
Staff Reporter
TDT | Manama
The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com
In the latest smishing scandal, scammers are targeting many in Bahrain by sending text messages in the name of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID).
Smishing or SMS phishing is a fraudulent act through which scammers send text messages to trick a person into revealing some sensitive personal information that could be used for all sorts of fraud activities including siphoning money from bank accounts or transferring money to other bank accounts using online funds transfer apps.
The Daily Tribune received many calls from those who received text messages in the name of CID. “I never knew it was a scammer, who was behind the SMS. And, in a momentary lapse, I clicked on the link they had sent to me,” a woman resident in Bahrain told the newspaper. She has been advised to alert the bank officials with regard to safeguarding her account.
The Daily Tribune has been carrying many reports in the last few weeks about fraudsters targeting the online banking and financial transaction network in Bahrain. The published articles carried the plight of many citizens and expatriates, who together lost thousands of Bahraini dinars to the scammers.
Most of the victims have launched a complaint with the police department, pleading for an intense probe into the matter. It is learnt that many banks are flooded with calls from frantic customers saying they have been conned out of their money by scammers after hacking their bank accounts or fund transfer system.
The cases have started popping up. Ajesh Panchavila Gopinath, a Bahrain resident, who lost in excess of BD850 to the scammers, has even threatened his bank of filing a criminal complaint with courts, for the former’s alleged inability to carry out a probe into the matter.
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