Are you a social media junkie? Do you have a long list of personalities that you follow online? If that’s you, then try to be more careful of what you share with these accounts, as they might not be the people they claim to be online.
Beware of unverified, fake accounts on social media, even those that claim to be owned by famous personalities because most of the time; they are being used by scammers to dupe residents into giving them their hard-earned money.
TRA Warns Residents of these Social Media Accounts that Scam Users in the UAE
In a press statement shared by the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (RTA), residents across the UAE have been warned against malicious individuals who pose as famous personalities or celebrities on social media to dupe their followers into giving them money, as shared in a report by Al Bayan.
As their agenda is yet unknown to the public at first look (or click), the TRA offers this precaution to social media users: most of these suspicious accounts do not have much activity on them, or have generally low number of followers.
Therefore, if you see these signs on the account that you’re viewing, it’s better not to follow or entertain them.
Also Read: Posting Pictures of Women Online Can Land You in Jail
There have been isolated cases, where an elderly Emirati national had been duped by a man who poses a famous personality on Instagram. The personality was able to convince the woman that he is in need of some monetary support, and so the woman had asked her daughter to send him money, on the account of the personality’s reputation [name].
However, this turned out to be a scam, as the woman had not heard from the man again who promised her that she would be rewarded for her kindness.
The new warning comes after over 5,000 fake social media accounts had been blocked in the UAE using a smart system launched along with an awareness campaign against online fraud by the Dubai police.