Scammers target UAE residents with a new ‘SIM Card Scam’ disguised as lucky draw

• Scammers pretending to be a telecommunication company staff, send fake messages to UAE residents claiming that they have won a lucky draw worth Dh200000.
• These scammers target victims’ SIM card code numbers.

What is the issue - Scammers are targeting UAE residents with a new ‘SIM Card scam’ impersonating du company staff. du is a telecommunication company in UAE.

• These scammers pretend to be a du telecommunication company staff and send fake messages to du sim users claiming that they have won a lucky draw worth Dh200000.
• They then ask the recipients to call a number and confirm the code printed on the back of their SIM card.

Why it matters - This type of phishing trick is used to collect SIM information, which could then be used by scammers to approach telecom vendors in order to transfer the real phone number to a new SIM.

Contents of the scam message

“Hello dear valuable customer of du my name is abdullah sheik calling from du head office. you know you are the sim card of du company have made the lucky draw in dubai. in this lucky draw you have won 200000 dirham. congratulations to you and your all family. first i will give you confirmation code of your prize money. 8997103 this number is printed on the back side of your sim card. check this number on the back side of your sim card iff this number confirmed. then you have to call this number 0559887371 o553928334 and claim your prize money. Reggards.du,” the scam message read, GULF NEWS reported.

What does the company have to say?

• du said that mobile subscribers should always be cautious of any fake messages that purportedly come from du.
• The telecommunication company requested its users to immediately report to the company’s customer care if they receive any such suspicious messages.

“We take incidents involving fraud very seriously. We would like to urge all our customers that in the event of any suspected or potential scam, they should either immediately get in touch with our customer care team or approach law enforcement authorities such as the police,” du said in a statement.