Lured by the vast wealth circulating in the UAE economy, an Asian information technology engineer named Benson came to this country. But almost as soon as he arrived as an expat, he began his swindling activities carried out through electronic channels.
Within the circle of his family and friends in his native country, Benson was known as a very intelligent person. What most people didn’t know was that he was also very good at electronic fraud. There were two sides to Benson – he had a dynamic personality and was a highly skilled infotech professional; he also had an insatiable greed.
One of his relatives, who owned a company for outsourcing and recruitment services, told Benson one day, “In the UAE, you can make a great deal of money, as long as you have info-tech skills and financial ambitions without bothering about legalities. So, go there without hesitation.”
Benson thought about this, made up his mind, and got here. Within a short while, he had got a job as an IT engineer in a private company. His social and professional networks expanded quickly, thanks to his outgoing personality.
[icon name=”car” class=”” unprefixed_class=””]Planting a seed of doubt
He also began making money very, very fast. Within a few months, his lifestyle was openly luxurious. His colleagues and compatriots were both amazed and envious, asking themselves how Benson could have such a lifestyle in such a short time, with an ordinary job. His car, for example, came with an excessive price tag, something a person in his position wouldn’t afford too soon after arriving in the UAE.
One person in his peer group revealed to others that he knew Benson had remitted a huge amount of money to his family one time. Another person said, “Benson is my compatriot, and we lived in the same area. Money has been his only concern since I’ve known him. Be cautious with him, and never deal with him financially. This is a sincere advice that I offer you.”
Benson’s method of electronic swindling was fairly simple and very clever. From the time he started working in the UAE, he hacked into airline databases to see which frequent flyers had the most ‘air miles’ to their name.
Air miles can usually be redeemed for free tickets and, in some cases, also for cashback offers, if the airline has a tie-up with a credit card issuer, with the money coming into the frequent flyers’ bank accounts.
Once Benson identified these top customers from an airline’s database, he hacked into these clients’ mail IDs and sent mails to the airline, asking it to send the loyalty reward money to a certain bank account. This account was, obviously, held by Benson, and not by the real frequent flyers.
For a while, this racket worked just fine. Benson was getting richer and richer. But then, the airlines whose databases had been hacked started getting complaints from the real frequent flyer clients, because they weren’t getting their loyalty reward.
[icon name=”user-secret” class=”” unprefixed_class=””]The revelation
As these airlines contacted the police, and investigations began, the pattern of air mile theft emerged from the dates of fake e-mails and money transfers to the fake client’s (Benson’s) account.
The cybercrimes branch of the police headquarters in the emirate where Benson lived followed up on this matter. The police assured the airlines that all action would be taken to catch the fraudster.
Benson was comfortable in the belief that he was safe, not realizing that UAE law enforcement was always on the lookout for swindlers like him. Police e-patrols soon tracked him down. He was arrested and interrogated.
He confessed to his crimes, admitting that he had hacked databases and converted air miles into cash rewards, diverting them to his own account.
He blamed his own greed for his wrongdoing and said that he was repentant. As expected, the court found him guilty.
Benson was sentenced to prison and then deportation, his perfectly good career as an expat engineer ruined by his boundless hunger for ill-gotten wealth.
