Women arrested over web scam

Police say several women lured men into online scams.

DUBAI // Two women posed as prostitutes to lure men over the internet and then steal from them, police said yesterday.

KT and SJ, both Asian nationals, operated websites from a flat in the Bur Dubai district of Mankhool, according to police.

"The women presented pictures on their websites luring men and asking them to pay for meeting them," said Maj Saeed Al Hajiri, the director of the cyber-investigations administration at Dubai Police's CID.

The women were arrested at the end of last month.

Maj Al Hajiri said: "Some websites were monitored by our internet patrol teams.

"Suspicions were raised about the websites' operation, and information collected revealed that men were being lured for sex, then defrauded."

Police declined to give details of how the women stole from their victims.

Officers searched the women's flat and seized computers, more than 15 mobile phones and a number of USB drives and external hard drives.

The CID director, Brig Gen Khalil Ibrahim Al Mansoori, said the public should be vigilant in reporting such crimes.

"Our electronic and cyber crimes divisions have specialised officers who monitor internet websites and forums and who have received extensive training in the field," he said.

"We have in place all the necessary legal framework to monitor these sites and investigate them as soon as we suspect any sort of fraudulent or negative web pages that may cause harm to the public."

The women have been referred to Dubai Public Prosecutor's office to face fraud charges.