A sales supervisor AM, 28, will have to pay Dh500,000 penalty and spend two years in jail for smartphones and data applications fraud under the names of 38 clients.
According to local reports, AM swindled 16 Samsung Galaxy S6 mobiles, 21 iPhone 6 and two iPhone 6 Plus mobiles along with SIM cards and data bundles in June and July 2015.
He will be deported after serving the punishment, the Criminal Court ruled.
A new Filipina customer service employee explained that though work started at 8am, AM told her to come at 7am to train her in using the workplace’s e-system, the Gulf Today reported.
“He would give me application forms of clients and tell me to urgently enter their details in the e-system, because he wanted to go on leave. I was not aware of what he was doing. I helped him in goodwill,” the Filipina said.
She then learned that he was misusing customers’ data in such a way that he would illicitly process applications without customers’ consent.
“This made customers pay more compared to the services they were receiving. Many customers contacted and informed us that they had not applied for new mobiles and data services. We discovered that AM swindled the mobiles and data,” she was quoted as saying.
An Indian customer service employee said a Filipino client came and applied for a GSM mobile service. He filled in the necessary documents and was requested to return after 24 hours.
The next day when he came to pick up the mobile, the e-system showed that it had been received in the morning. Details showed the transaction was made using a new Ugandan employee’s username.
“The Ugandan staff denied any connection to the transaction and requested me to alert his supervisor (the convict-AM). AM came and took the client aside. Thereafter, around 40 clients came complaining.
“Some wondered why they received higher monthly bills, others questioned why they received SMS alerts for purchase receipts of new smartphones. Some received alerts showing that their mobile services had been canceled,” said the Indian customer service employee.
Investigations showed that AM – in his capacity as a supervisor – had requested his charges to give him their usernames and passwords. These included the Filipina and the Ugandan.
An Indian manager explained that some clients who had actually incurred Dhs300 bills received alerts indicating they had incurred Dhs3,000 for their new mobile and data bundle services.
The manager reportedly recalled that “once AM was seen paying complaining clients. The move was to cover up his crimes.”
The Ugandan staff added that he had seen AM paying five clients who had come to complain about monthly bills.
“There was a time when a disappointed client came and argued that the sum on his bill was more compared to the services he had received. He raised his voice and refused to listen. AM arrived and took the client aside. I saw AM talking to the client then giving him a sum of money to clear his bill. The client left,” the Ugandan was quoted as saying by Gulf Today.
