JEDDAH – Umm Adnan, a divorced woman with three children, had never thought her opening an account on social media in search of employment would lead to her becoming a victim of blackmailing.
She lost her job as a result of mass retrenchment in her company. She holds just a secondary school certificate and the company terminated her from service arbitrarily.
“My father is a retired government employee and we don’t have any male breadwinner to support our family. So I was desperately searching for a job,” she told her story to Al-Madina Arabic daily.
Umm Adnan opened a Facebook account and wrote in her profile that she was seeking job, without knowing its consequences. “I did not know that it’s an easy door for fraudsters to reach me,” she said.
After a few days, she received a message from a person who introduced herself as princess who loves to do charity and support youth. “I thought I was very lucky to receive the message of hope from the princess. She asked me to send my CV and a color print of my ID.”
A fearful Umm Adnan refused to oblige. The “princess” advanced various reasons to convince her. Finally she sent a color copy of the ID. Soon after receiving the ID, the “princess” started blackmailing her and asked her to transfer SR8,000 into her account within three days, otherwise she would tarnish her image.
“I was shocked when I came to know that I have fallen victim of a blackmailer and I did not know how to escape from him. I did not want to inform my relatives fearing it would complicate the issue.”
Later Umm Adnan saw her ID with an indecent picture. There was a comment: A hijabi woman ready to have immoral relations. Her mobile phone was also given along with the malicious comment.
A bank official said in such cases the victim would lose his/her money forever. In order to transfer money to a new account, a new beneficiary name with account number and bank name have to be added. “Since the account holder wrote all banking details of the fraudster, he/she has to take the responsibility for it. If the cheated person has any evidence, a complaint can be filed through the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency and a cyber crime case can be filed against the fraudster.”
Al-Madina contacted the hotline to inform about blackmailing cases. An official at the department advised Umm Adnan to cancel all her accounts on the social media to prevent the fraudster from contacting her.
The official also advised to file a complaint through Abshir, explaining details of the case. “The department will take up the matter immediately as a cyber crime,” he told Al-Madina.
Many Saudi men and women, who have Facebook accounts, have been subjected to blackmailing by fraudsters who operate their network from abroad. They force their victims to send money into unknown accounts to save a relative or friend from a difficult situation.
Faisal Al-Hadli, a victim, said: “One day I received a message from my brother who is studying abroad saying he had fell victim to blackmailing by a gang and that he was in their possession. The gang was demanding transfer of SR5,000 to their account to release me.”
Al-Hadli added: “I was shocked to read that message and I did not know what to do and I transferred the amount late in the night to avoid any harm coming to my brother. The surprise was that my brother was sleeping in his hostel and had never sent any message.”
“Later I learned that the fraudster was following my Facebook account for a long time to know my friends and relatives. He then hacked my brother’s Facebook account and sent me a message through that account,” Al-Hadli said, adding that he had tried all ways and methods to retrieve his money but so far failed.
