Dubai, June 27: The malicious practice of the use of blogs and SMS to defame and blackmail people or organisations is spreading fast in the country, according to senior police officers from Dubai and Sharjah
According to police in the two emirates, the trend is affecting the society to a large extent because some innocent youngsters of wealthy families, including girls, are being targeted by mischievous elements.
The Director of General Department of Criminal Investigation, Dubai Police, Colonel Khalil Ibrahim Al Mansouri, said, “Widespread access to the Internet has made it easier for offenders to prey on their victims.”
The psychological complexity of many people, too, pushes them into such crimes, he added. He pointed out that there has been a marked increase in such crimes in Dubai over the past three years with 300 cases of slander and blackmail recorded in 2008, as compared to 170 cases in 2007 and a mere 70 in 2006, he pointed out.
In Sharjah, there were more than 150 cases of slander and blackmail recorded in 2008. However, the police tracked down the suspects in 80 per cent of the cases. Police departments in Dubai and Sharjah have been receiving complaints with increasing frequency about bloggers who launch a malicious campaign aimed at ruining the reputation of certain people for revenge. In some cases, the offenders have blackmailed or threatened to blackmail girls or their families by circulating indecent photographs taken by mobile phone cameras, if the latter did not pay up money.
Senior police officers attributed the phenomenon to lack of awareness in the society about the cyber crime laws prevalent in the country. Among the other factors responsible for the cyber crime is the widespread use of cellular and Internet technology, the availability of enough spare time to the youth, the high cost of living and coupled with difficult economic situation. The use of blog and SMS to defame and blackmail people or organisations is considered a serious cyber crime which, if proven, can result in two-year jail with or without fines for the offenders.
No matter how smart the criminals might think they are, police departments across the country are always one step ahead in catching the culprits.
With state-of-the-art technology at their disposal, courtesy the government’s seriousness in tackling cyber and electronic crimes, Dubai Police have acquired special expertise to track down electronic criminal activity and bring the offenders to book.
A highly-trained team of cyber crime detectives is assigned the task of tracking the origins of suspect e-mails to determine the Internet Protocol, or IP address, and then zeroing in on the suspect. With active cooperation from Etisalat officials, Dubai Police can easily gather information related to the suspects, whether the IP address belongs to the UAE or overseas. To cope with the increase in cyber crimes in the emirate, Sharjah Police, too, are planning to set up a unit that will specialise in tackling cyber crimes.
Officers responsible for tackling cyber crimes in Sharjah urged victims of blackmail to come forward and expose the offenders so that such crimes are curbed.
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