Mobile banking fraudster who stole millions from victim is jailed for five years

Pakistani got a replacement SIM card with his victim's phone number and used his personal information to access the Afghan's mobile banking and make large transfers.

DUBAI // A Pakistani man was sentenced to five years in jail for transferring millions of dirhams from a person’s account after posing as him to access his mobile banking.

Dubai Criminal Court convicted the 22-year-old on charges of forgery, use of forged documents and fraudulently obtaining millions.

The defendant pretended to be the Afghan man when he went to du to request a replacement SIM card with his old phone number after claiming that he had lost his.

After getting a SIM with the Afghan’s number, the defendant also obtained his bank account information and contacted the bank from the victim’s number, making the bank think it was actually the Afghan.

The accused asked them to reset his online banking password before doing transfers amounting to Dh6.5 million from the Afghan’s account.

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“I was in my home country but I had checked my bank account through mobile banking before I left. When I tried to do so later while still back in my country, it didn’t work,” said the 34-year-old Afghan.

He called his bank in Dubai from his Afghan number and was surprised to know that his account was active and several transfers had been made from it.

The incident happened in September 2014 and, when the man found out, he flew back to Dubai and visited his bank, which froze his account upon hearing of his complaint.

“He had obtained my personal information somehow and answered all the identification and security questions by the bank when he called them to activate the card,” said the Afghan, who lodged a complaint at Al Muraqqabat police station.

It is not clear why the case was not referred to court before now.

Prosecutors said he was aided by others who remain unidentified.

The court fined him Dh5 million and ordered that he be deported after he serves his sentence.