Help fight online fraud: Abu Dhabi’s ‘Masouliya’ center points the way

Abu Dhabi: How to protect yourself from digital fraud?

A new campaign aims to raise awareness of cybercrime and the most prevalent ways in which cybercrime is committed, such as phishing and other subtle ways of luring victims.

To raise awareness about cybercrime, the Legal and Community Awareness Center of the Abu Dhabi Ministry of Justice has launched a three-month ‘Masouliya’ campaign to help the community tackle e-fraud under the slogan ‘Digital Protection, Safe Society’.

It highlights methods that individuals can follow to prevent cybercrime and protect themselves from cybercriminals.

Counselor Yousuf Saeed Al-Abri, Deputy Minister of Justice of Abu Dhabi, emphasized that the “Masouliya” center plays an important role in disseminating preventive protection to members of society through strengthening legal and community awareness campaigns.

Abri said this would form an impenetrable fence against crime and bad behaviour, in line with the country’s wise leadership to strengthen the foundations supporting the maintenance of security and stability.

Counselor Al-Abri noted that the “Masouliya” center is keen to diversify its means, using modern technological means to deliver meaningful educational messages through multimedia platforms, in order to honor Executive Vice President Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al His Highness Nahyan’s instructions to the Prime Minister and Minister of the Presidential Court, Head of the Abu Dhabi Department of Justice, to consolidate the sense of community and spread legal culture at all levels of society.

Counselor Dr. Mohammed Rashid Al-Dhanhani, Director, Abu Dhabi Center for Law and Community Awareness, explained that the campaign is significant, especially since e-fraud is one of the most common types of cybercrime, whose negative impact and damage are increasingly More people use social media to commit fraud crimes at all levels of the economy, business and society. The methods and fields of fraud crimes are diverse and have therefore increased in the past few years.

Dr. Al-Dhanhani stated that individuals have become victims of online fraud due to using incorrect communication methods and websites, visiting unsafe websites, and not knowing the party handling these websites.

This often results in monetary loss to the victim and threatens the economic development of individuals, societies and countries due to the victim’s significant loss and difficulty in retrieving and recovering the money.

For this, it is important to address this problem and raise awareness about its forms and methods of prevention.

Dr Al-Dhanhani also highlighted that the campaign will highlight the most prominent cases of online fraud such as fake shopping, impersonation of regular employees, maid, transportation and marriage scams, and false real estate offers at lower prices. Marketing to lure victims into quick payments, deceiving others into winning monetary or in-kind rewards, and requesting bank data to transfer monetary rewards or payouts for in-kind rewards.

“The campaign sheds light on ways to prevent fraud through video, audio and electronic materials, the release of numerous leaflets and real life stories and facts witnessed by the courts, through various media platforms and through legal outreach. Dr Al-Dhanhani added , to punish cybercriminals under Article (40) of Federal Decree No. (34) of 2021 on Combating Rumors and Cybercrime.