A Filipino mechanical engineer in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) lost some Dh25,000 (P283,627) to a hacker who accessed his credit card, the news site Gulf News reported Thursday.
The hacker allegedly used Rene Hinolan's credit card account to make 20 online payments to pay fines to the Abu Dhabi police, Gulf News said.
Hinolan said the bank called to ask him whether he authorized the use of his credit card for 20 transactions amounting to Dh25,130 with the Abu Dhabi Police.
"I was shocked when they told me that I may have fallen victim to a hacker,” Hinolan said.
Hinolan, who lives with his wife and three children in the UAE, said the transactions involved amounts ranging from Dh900 to Dh2,400.
He said he couldn’t have incurred such fines because he rarely visited Abu Dhabi and I didn't drive.
Hinolan said he was also shocked to learn that a colleague had fallen prey to similar fraudulent transactions.
Tracing hackers
On February 1 this year, the UAE Central Bank issued a circular calling on all the country’s banks to beef up their defenses against hackers.
Gulf News quoted Netherlands-based Christiaan Beek, Team Leader of Incident Response & Forensics for online security firm McAfee, as saying a hacking job of this sort would not be a smart thing to do.
Beek said there were several ways to trace the perpetrators.
"If he the hacker used the cards to pay for traffic fines, tracing those involved would seem to be a straightforward job – through the vehicle license plates or maybe even insurance companies,” he said.
The hacker allegedly used Rene Hinolan's credit card account to make 20 online payments to pay fines to the Abu Dhabi police, Gulf News said.
Hinolan said the bank called to ask him whether he authorized the use of his credit card for 20 transactions amounting to Dh25,130 with the Abu Dhabi Police.
"I was shocked when they told me that I may have fallen victim to a hacker,” Hinolan said.
Hinolan, who lives with his wife and three children in the UAE, said the transactions involved amounts ranging from Dh900 to Dh2,400.
He said he couldn’t have incurred such fines because he rarely visited Abu Dhabi and I didn't drive.
Hinolan said he was also shocked to learn that a colleague had fallen prey to similar fraudulent transactions.
Tracing hackers
On February 1 this year, the UAE Central Bank issued a circular calling on all the country’s banks to beef up their defenses against hackers.
Gulf News quoted Netherlands-based Christiaan Beek, Team Leader of Incident Response & Forensics for online security firm McAfee, as saying a hacking job of this sort would not be a smart thing to do.
Beek said there were several ways to trace the perpetrators.
"If he the hacker used the cards to pay for traffic fines, tracing those involved would seem to be a straightforward job – through the vehicle license plates or maybe even insurance companies,” he said.
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