India-UAE flights: foreigners deceived by false travel approvals-News

If you are a UAE resident who is stranded in India and desperately wanting to return to work, then please pay attention to fraudsters posing as UAE embassy authorities selling fake flight approval letters.

The warning comes from an official at the UAE Embassy in New Delhi, after Khaleej Times contacted his office as part of an investigation to understand how fraudsters used a fake website (https://www.uaeembassy.in/) to sell approval letters to unsuspecting people in the UAE resident.

Shortly after Khaleej Times reported to the relevant authorities in the UAE, the fake portal went offline. However, although it lasted until the evening of July 26, it reportedly looked so persuasive that those eager to return to work or reunite with their families were overwhelmed by it.

The official website of the UAE Embassy in New Delhi is https://www.mofaic.gov.ae/en/missions/new-delhi. However, those who found the fake website after a Google search for “UAE Embassy in India” (see screenshot 1) pointed out that the latter apparently appeared to be this part.

In the meantime, the people running the fake website continued to respond to emails and conduct transactions until the story was published on Tuesday. As Khaleej Times discovered in a confirmation letter received by this reporter, they did so while impersonating a UAE diplomat (see screenshot 2).

Since the suspension of flights on April 24, hundreds of UAE residents currently stranded in India have been desperately exploring ways to return to the country.

Linsy Monse, a 40-year-old Dubai healthcare professional, told Khaleej Times that she paid 8,000 rupees (approximately 395 dirhams), which she believes was a letter from the UAE government approving her teenage daughter to fly back to Dubai.

There is a non-existent title of “Ministry of Interior and Naturalization (sic)” at the top of this letter. At the bottom is said to be the signature of the Director of Dubai’s General Directorate of Residency and Foreign Affairs (GDRFA), and the authorities’ hotlines 8005111 and 04-3139999 listed as contact numbers.

A simple Internet search confirmed that these figures did not actually belong to the unrelated Dubai regulator Al Ameen claimed in the false letter-but Monse said it was too little and too late.

“I doubted it until I received this letter, but unfortunately, I have already paid and there is no way to get it back,” Mons, who has lived in Dubai for 20 years, said after realizing the letter. The approval in her inbox was enough to leave her nowhere to escape.

Earlier, when she wrote an email to what she believed to be the UAE Embassy in New Delhi, hoping that her fully vaccinated daughter would be approved to fly back, she said that she received a letter from the “ambassador’s office” within an hour. reply.

For a mother who is choked by the thought that she might see her daughter again in a few months, it doesn’t matter that one email instructs her to contact the “agent” on WhatsApp, while the other one uses Written in laborious English (both seen by Khaleej Times), warning her to pay the “approval letter fee” within 24 hours.

“All I was thinking at the time was to end the weeks of separation from my daughter. Who would have thought it was not?” rued Monse, she thought she was just coughing dozens of hundreds of dirhams to fraudsters posing as diplomats in the UAE Embassy One of the victims.

Investigate after more cases appear

According to sources close to the matter, V. Muraleedharan, the Minister of State of the Indian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Parliamentary Affairs Union, has now launched an investigation after more cases have emerged.

UAE resident Naveen Balan, son of former Kerala Minister A. K Balan, and his wife Namitha Venugopal were required to pay 16,000 rupees (990 dirhams) for two “approval letters”, which they believed would be from the UAE. Received by the New Delhi Embassy.

Due to continued travel restrictions, they were stranded in Kerala for several weeks and desperate to return to the UAE. They contacted the scammers, thinking they were seeking help from real embassy officials. According to local media reports, they were required to pay for the two letters before reporting the incident to the state police’s cybercrime team.

Another UAE resident caught in the scam said that the fake embassy website and its contact information looked “too official and cannot be fake.”

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“After Google searched and put its link at the very top, I was taken to the site. Even the email address looked real, despite the obvious signs – such as an email requesting an agent to be contacted on WhatsApp. Payment. I wish I did due diligence,” said the engineer in Sharjah, who paid less than AED 2,000 for his family of four approval letter, which was later found to be fake.

Embassy officials said this is not the first time

A source at the UAE Embassy in the Indian capital told Khaleej Times on Monday evening that this is not the first time the UAE Embassy in the Indian capital has fallen victim to such operators.

“India’s response to Covid in recent weeks has been very effective for the new cases, and we hope that regular commercial flights from the country to the UAE will resume soon. However, before that, those UAE residents currently waiting to return from India will have to Patiently continue to follow the government’s instructions and agreements. They must know that the UAE Embassy in India cannot and will not issue any special approval letter to fly from India to the UAE,” the official clarified.

India-UAE flights: latest

Flights from India to the UAE will be Suspended until at least August 2, The national airline Etihad Airways said on Monday. The airline’s customer service representative notified passengers of the latest news on their official social media accounts. It further added that the date may be extended, depending on the instructions of the UAE authorities.

The entry of passengers from India to the UAE has been suspended for three months. The UAE National Emergency Crisis and Disaster Management Authority (NCEMA) and the General Civil Aviation Administration (GCAA) announced for the first time on April 24 that inbound travel from India was suspended for 10 days.

only Eight categories of passengers are allowed to enter The UAE comes from a country that has suspended passenger entry. However, there are certain Covid security rules and agreements that can facilitate their entry.

For example, holders of the UAE Golden Visa (10 years) and Silver Visa (5 years) cannot just book a flight ticket online and then fly. They must present relevant documents to the relevant airline office.

If all documents meet the eligibility criteria, they will be reviewed and approved by the relevant UAE authorities. Only after that can they board the plane and fly.

Abhishek Sengupta

Abhishek is the multimedia director of Khaleej Times and worked on radio and television channels before joining the first English daily newspaper in the UAE. He has semi-skilled skills in breaking news and storytelling in the visual and print media, and he feels more comfortable speaking than writing. As a food and travel enthusiast, he is always busy planning an itinerary when he is not making videos for Khaleej Times.