There have been reports of the Dubai Police shutting down thousands of social media accounts last year. We look at the reason behind this and how you can remain secure online by securing your accounts and preventing fraud, abuse, violence or privacy infringements.
There were 1899 accounts shut down in 2016 followed by 1799 in 2017. However, there was a sharp increase in the numbers in 2018 which went up to 2920; an increase of about 50%. These accounts were found to be fake and hence were shut down by the Dubai police.
According to Brigadier Jamal Salem Al Jallaf, director of the General Department of Criminal Investigation and Investigation about 5000 accounts were removed last year all over the UAE on account of impersonation. A fake account would typically be created to impersonate a celebrity or a famous person, who would then try to befriend people and become privy to their personal /confidential information.
Fake accounts are created for various different reasons: to promote political agendas, to abuse other users, to steal personal or financial information and commit online fraud. These fake accounts are identified by the UAE police departments through a smart system that flags bogus accounts. They have warned users to secure accounts to prevent hacking and identify theft.
Unverified social media accounts of supposed celebrities often try to scam people. These scamsters would connect to people on social media and then try to get people to make a payment to some supposed humanitarian or charity cause. One elderly Emirati national was targeted by a man pretending to be a celebrity. The fraud promised to return the money and fooled the Emirati national, who told her daughter to send the person money.
The way to detect these as fake is to look out for a few telltale signs. Look out for any spelling errors or discrepancies in the name of anyone claiming to be a celebrity. If they have only a few or no posts, this is also a red flag. If the ID appears to have been newly created and has few or no followers, there is definitely reason to be suspicious. The tips in the image above will also help you detect fakes. Well known celebrities will have a little blue tick next to their profiles to indicate that this is the real account of the actual celebrity, not someone trying to impersonate them.
In partnership with telecommunications firm Etisalat, the police monitor suspicious social media activity and block bogus accounts. The UAE police have asked residents to report any suspicious looking IDs that they may come across. This would not only safeguard them and protect them against theft and abuse, it could also help save others, apprehend criminals and control criminal activity.
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