Doha: In a bid to safeguard people from a mounting threat of cybercrime, especially phishing, the Ministry of Interior (MoI) has launched an awareness campaign to educate masses on potential ways and tools used by fraudsters.

The MoI, in an ongoing campaign, has revealed several methods used by fraudsters on the cyber world using scam emails, messages etc.

On its official Twitter account, the Ministry shared a number of invaluable tips for people to identify such messages. The post says that most of such scam messages usually suggest people to change their personnel data to avoid theft.

Such scam messages also ask people for a speedy approach to change the data and also provide people with some instant links to change the name, the password of the digital accounts and during this process they take people’s personal and sensitive data from their digital devices.

The MoI has asked people to be cautious of anonymous and suspicious messages and never respond to them and also must not share their banking information such as bank account number, debit/credit card numbers or passwords with anyone or send them through emails and/or text messages.

“These fraud entities do not address target people with their full name but usually use only the first name or ‘our dear client’ while the official entities and websites address the customer with their full official name.

“Also the fraudsters’ names are usually strange and sometimes contain numbers,” MoI said.

The electronic fraud reports received by the Economic and Cybercrimes Department during 2018 exceeded 40 percent of the total reports received, most of which were using WhatsApp or SMS that contain an electronic link.

The Economic and Cybercrimes Department said that the financial frauds have increased recently, most of them through SMS and WhatsApp messages. Many people are victims of this crime, because of responding to fraudsters and sending information about it including credit card information.

The Ministry of the Interior earlier arrested an international criminal organisation that used stolen bank cards to seize money and deposit it in a company account in cooperation with its employees.

This emphasise that not all gangs practice fraudulent acts from inside the State of Qatar, there are some gangs which practice such acts from outside the country.

The Ministry and the relevant authorities have advised people to protect themselves against e-frauds and never share personal information online with anyone.

The Department also urged commercial and financial institutions and companies to cooperate with them in case they notice any withdrawal of funds or purchases or transfers by non-specified means, in order to prevent any financial losses due to this type of electronic fraud.