A Dubai Court has ordered a bank to pay AED 9.5M to a customer for money lost in unauthorised transactions.
The persons became victims of SIM swap. In the fraud, fresh mobile numbers were issued by telecom service providers against a customer’s registered mobile number and with the help of one-time passwords (OTPs) the bank transactions were carried out.
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Although the Dubai Court of Cassation earlier dismissed an order by the Dubai Commercial Court of First Instance about holding the bank and a telecom company jointly liable, in the new ruling the bank was ordered to pay the customer.
Ghassan El Daye, partner and head of litigation Middle East for UK-based law firm Charles Russell Speechlys, which represented the telecoms company, said the bank had insisted that it was the fault of the telecom company but “after taking our argument into consideration, the court ruled in our favour, stating that the transfers could not have happened if the personal details of the bank client were not leaked in the first place.”
