By Faten Omar
KUWAIT: Online scams are evolving. Many people are complaining of many fraudulent sites as scammers are now disguising themselves and their activities by using government websites and promoting them on the search engines. With a fake government website, Leena and her husband lost KD 6,700 to scammers. Leena was trying to file a complaint with the Kuwaiti Competition Protection Agency (CPA) regarding an issue that happened to her, but she never knew the website she found was not the real one.
Her data was compromised. Later, she received a call from a man discussing her issue and the process of solving it. "Everything seemed legit, but eventually he hacked into my husband’s bank account and stole KD 6,700. The money was transferred on the spot, and he wanted to access my husband’s other additional savings, but he could not. At one moment, we were almost going to lose all of our money and go bankrupt," Leena told the Kuwait Times. There were two sponsored ads under fake Nazaha, she said.
"When we went on CPA’s Instagram, it only had random posts. It turned out that so many people had been scammed because of this, and they did not create a proper campaign about it! More awareness campaigns should be organized by the government, and there should be more strict procedures regarding that, even with banks and the Ministry of Interior," she added. Fake government websites are not the only way scammers use to trap their victims; they also target people with online advertisements for famous restaurants with tempting offers. "I saw a great offer posted on Facebook. It was a good deal, and I ordered the items," Magi Hamed said.
"After a while, they took KD 350 from my bank account. I contacted my bank, but the only way to get my money back is to trace the scammer’s IP address, which is a long process and will probably cost more," she said sadly. Mohammad Al-Jasem, a lawyer and Interpol-accredited expert in international law enforcement cooperation, told Kuwait Times that if the money transfer was within Kuwait, the victim could file a case against the scammer using the username, and the Department of Cybercrime in Kuwait could trace him or her via the IP address.
The department contacts website owners to collect data on the scammer. It tracks the internet line and reveals the data of the wanted person, but if the money is transferred outside the country, once the IP address is determined, correspondence is carried out. On the other hand, experts revealed some tips to help identify potential scam websites, saying that scammers often use domain names that resemble well-known brands or websites to deceive users.
Web users are advised to check the website’s URL carefully for any misspellings, extra characters, or odd domain extensions. Also, legitimate websites use HTTPS to encrypt data transmission, especially during sensitive activities like payment processing or account login. Experts urged people to look for a padlock icon in the address bar to ensure a secure connection. In addition, some legitimate websites layouts may appear unprofessional with low-quality images, while others contain numerous pop-up ads and have poor written content.