Thursday 02 / May / 2024
Muscat: Most social media users are unaware of the fact that the inappropriate messages they write on online platforms can land them into trouble as per the Omani Penal Code, a specialist on combating cybercrime said.
While speaking to Times of Oman’s sisterly radio channel Al Shabiba, Mohammed bin Khamis Al-Ajmi, a specialist in combating cybercrime, said that cybercrimes are of many types as per the Anti-Cybercrime Law in the Sultanate of Oman.
The most common and widespread crime in the Sultanate falls into the cyber bullying category, which involves electronic extortion and fraud, he said.
Mohammed Al-Ajmi said that most of the responses of people on social networking sites are classified as electronic crimes, and the person who writes the message is not aware that this is an electronic crime and is liable for punishment.
He advised that individuals must review the Information Technology Crimes Law, especially with regard to attacking, slandering, insulting and bullying in all its forms.
Mohammed Al-Ajmi said that there are many cases of impersonation of accounts on social networking sites by fabricating an account of a celebrity, influencer, media person, or even officials, as well as individuals at times, and these accounts are dealt with after objections about these impersonated platforms, and companies respond to by closing such accounts.
He added that it is not possible to file a complaint with the judicial authorities about these kinds of impersonations on social platforms, as many of these accounts are managed from outside the Sultanate of Oman, which make it difficult for authorities to reach the accused and prosecute him.
He pointed out that the role of community members should be to not respond to such impersonated accounts.
“There are many accounts claiming to provide financial assistance, documented with the authentication mark of the platform, but in reality they are fake accounts. The general rule is that no person can provide financial assistance through social platforms and this is what people should be aware of,” he added.
He added that there are many cases of fraudulent withdrawals in which individuals are asked to transfer an amount of money for the purpose of clearing the financial assistance or lottery.
Once the amount is transferred into their account, the conman escapes with the money, he added.
In a real case of fraudulent withdrawal through the WhatsApp application, an individual’s account was hacked and his identity was impersonated, he said, adding the impersonator sent a message to one of the relatives of the victim stating that he needed an amount of up to OMR500.
The person responded to this message and transferred the amount without verifying the antecedents.
One of the widespread methods of electronic fraud is investment and trading via the Internet, which leads to the theft of large sums of money from individuals.
In a similar case, up to OMR20,000 was siphoned off from an individual through one of the trading platforms, and his family also suffered a loss of OMR8,000 through an electronic trading platform.
Likewise, a fraudster stole OMR9,000 through pyramid marketing from an individual, which is basically prohibited in Oman.
