Cyber criminals cheat youth

But the shakedown did not end there. After a while, the fraudster got in touch with RS on the pretext of offering her a job. Once again posing as a police officer, he asked to help out in the ‘entrapment’ of a fictitious individual, whom he claimed was the subject of a police investigation.

He asked RS to befriend this individual, learn his personal secrets, and essentially spy on him for the sake of the investigative mission. But the fraudster’s game-plan was to deceive RS into having an illicit relationship with him, something he succeeded in achieving.

The victim, who knew there was no such video in existence, reported the blackmail attempt to the authorities. Investigations later revealed that several innocent people were targeted by the fraudster. He was also found in possession of around RO 60,000 in cash.

A local criminal court eventually sentenced him to more than 20 years in jail for identity theft, fraud and blackmail.

Also instructive is the example of ‘Maryam’ who had registered her details on a number of online recruitment sites.

Sometime later, she was surprised to find a rather dubious message advising here to apply through a app named ‘Airdroid’. Suspicious about the message, she inquired with cyber security experts who warned here against using the app, which when activated can access the applicant’s phone details. Personal information gained as a result is then typically used as a blackmail tool, they warned.

Mubarak advises job-seekers to only use reputable websites when applying for a job. Applicants are also encouraged to work from behind a firewall, be alert for phishing scams, and avoid spyware and adware.