Muscat: As technology progresses at an ever-increasing pace, fraudsters across the globe, including in the sultanate, are constantly finding new ways to exploit people for financial gain, especially by scamming people out of their hard-earned money.
Such cybercrimes often cause enormous financial and material losses for the victims as well as the economy.
The Royal Oman Police (ROP) has warned of a method in which fraudsters communicate with targeted people via text messages offering jobs with a specific daily salary.
The recipient of these messages is required to open bank accounts through which sums of money resulting from various fraud operations are transferred and then re-transferred to external bank accounts.
The Royal Oman Police advised everyone not to respond to these fraudulent messages and the need to report immediately when exposed to such situations.
According to experts, individuals can be victims of various types of fraud, including financial loss and leak of personal information, that is carried out by sending messages via emails or social media, including WhatsApp.
The main intention of fraudsters is to get individuals to reveal sensitive information such as bank account details, passwords, or other personal information that could be exploited for illegal purposes.
Recently, the Directorate-General of Criminal Investigation at the Royal Oman Police (ROP) detected a new criminal method via the Imo app through an account bearing ROP’s logo and targeting citizens and residents.
The conman tells the victims that they were involved in violations that should be settled by providing their bank account information which the fraudster later used to withdraw cash from their accounts.
The ROP advises citizens and residents not to disclose their personal or bank account information on social media.
The Royal Oman Police (ROP) has working on an anti-fraud public awareness campaign to tackle instances of cyber fraud.
The latest initiative to fight fraud in partnership with Royal Oman Police focuses on educating not just the bank’s customers but all the people living in Oman about the importance of never sharing their personal details or their banking/card details with anyone over the phone or input these on links received through social media or
messaging.
Basic tips
Personal and banking information should be not shared with anyone, especially on the phone or online.
Don’t click on embedded links received through SMS or WhatsApp claiming that you have won a prize.
Avoid using untrusted Bluetooth or Wi-Fi connections in public places as fraudsters may access your personal information.
To prevent cyber fraud, keep computers and smartphones updated with the latest security updates for both their operating system and the anti-virus
the program installed in it.
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