NEWS FROM THE UAE
SOURCE : THE NATIONAL
ATM fraud threatens holidays
ABU DHABI - SEP 30: Thousands of people holidaying abroad for Eid al Fitr may not be able to gain access to cash as banks block international ATM transactions as they continue to combat an international fraud.
The fraud is believed to have occurred after a network that banks use to share sensitive information, such as PIN numbers, was breached.
The incident has been far-reaching, exposing most banks in the UAE. Nearly a month after issuing warnings via text messages urging customers to change their PIN numbers, banks are still on alert and restricting transactions.
Lloyds TSB said yesterday it had prohibited withdrawals from UAE-issued cards at cash machines in at least 10 eastern European countries, as well as Britain, the US, Spain, Canada, Turkey, Malaysia, Qatar and the Philippines.
Although local withdrawal limits were still set at Dh10,000 (US$2,700) a day, the bank said it was considering lowering these as well.
Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank said it had taken similar measures, “blocking all withdrawals from ATMs outside the GCC and blocking all card transactions in a defined number of countries outside the GCC”.
Limits on daily cash withdrawals, the statement said, were also lowered.
In addition to having temporarily “switched off the use of debit cards outside the UAE”, Citibank said it had been blocking cards that were “at imminent risk of being compromised”. The bank planned to re-allow the usage of “debit cards outside the country after Eid”, the statement added.
Many of the changes were apparently made with little or no warning to card holders. Barclays, for example, had been informing customers of such changes only when they called in, according to a customer service employee.
Although the banks have indicated that the fraud has affected debit card holders only, credit card holders have also been hit with banks contacting some customers and telling them their card may have been compromised.
HSBC is among a number of banks to restore withdrawal limits to the levels in place before the fraud threat – to Dh12,000 for its Premier accounts and to Dh8,000 for regular customer accounts. They are also allowing customers to withdraw money from non-HSBC cashpoints in all countries bar Canada and Thailand.
Several bankers, who all requested they not be identified, said representatives of several financial institutions had confronted the bank suspected to be at the centre of the security breach.
If found to have been the source of the breach, the bank could be expected to reimburse potentially millions of dirhams worth of fraudulent charges.
“My fraud department is certain of it,” said one high-ranking official. “Other banks are contacting them now, but as we stand, they are denying it.”
Despite repeated requests by The National on the allegations, the bank under suspicion failed to respond.
Police appeal for help in search for tourist
DUBAI - SEP. 30- Police have appealed for help in finding a grandfather who has not been seen since he went shopping at a Dubai mall two weeks ago.
Nabil Mohammed, 65, an Egyptian national on holiday with his family, went missing in Deira City Centre Mall at around midday on Sept 16.
Mr Mohammed was shopping with his wife and sisters-in-law and was left alone when the women entered the mall’s public lavatory together. When they came out he had vanished.
“It appears that the missing man got tired of waiting around for his family and decided to head back to Ajman on his own,” a Dubai Police spokesman said. “From there, his disappearance remains a mystery. He probably became dehydrated and got lost trying to find a taxi outside the mall. He could have got into the wrong car.”
The police say they are treating his disappearance as “suspicious” because Mr Mohammed has no history of mental illness.
As soon as the family realised Mr Mohammed was missing they contacted security guards and reviewed surveillance footage shot by closed-circuit television cameras.
“Footage showed the man wandering around, but then he is lost. He must have stepped outside and got lost,” said the spokesman.
Police describe Mr Mohammed as “a dark-skinned man of average height, with a short moustachioed beard, wearing a shirt and colourful trousers”.
He and his wife had been staying with their daughter in Ajman. Since his disappearance, relatives have been searching in and around the shopping centre area and in Sharjah and Ajman, the spokesman added.
Police have appealed for help in finding Mr Mohammed and have issued a hotline number for the public to call: 04 606 5555/04 266 0555.
Restaurant follows trend, removes controversial shark fin soup
ABU DHABI - SEP. 30:Shark fin soup is off the menu at one of Abu Dhabi’s leading hotels after a decree limiting shark hunting in Emirates waters.
The Shangri-La hotel said the Dh260 (US$71) soup was being removed “with immediate effect”. The hotel had offered four varieties before the decision.
The Asian delicacy has been the target of conservationists for years. They say that hunting sharks solely for their dorsal fins – the soup’s main ingredient – is wasteful and inhumane. “Finning” involves removing the fin and throwing the rest of the fish back into the sea, which invariably results in its death.
Earlier this week, the Ministry of Environment and Water banned the practice, following the lead of other countries including the EU and US.
A spokesman for the Shangri-La group said it was reviewing the removal of the soup from its other restaurants.
“Shark fin remains on some hotel menus due to customer demand, according to their culinary and cultural preferences,” he said. “Shangri-La is reviewing this subject and expects to develop guidelines for all hotels shortly.”
Earlier this month, the Hakkasan in London, a Chinese restaurant, removed its shark fin soup — also costing about Dh260 — after a campaign by environmentalists.
Shark finning is helping push several species towards extinction, according to the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). Populations of tiger and bull sharks have fallen by 90 per cent in the past few decades and millions of sharks are killed each year
Ibrahim al Zu’ubi, an adviser to the Emirates Diving Association, said he welcomed the Government’s restrictions on hunting sharks.
“The Gulf waters are amazing as breeding and nursing grounds for sharks,” he said. “The minister was kind enough to issue a decree to regulate shark fishing... we can refer to a government law now.
“The challenge now will be to implement the decree. “
The Emirates Wildlife Society-WWF, which also welcomed the restrictions, is hoping to conduct a full assessment of shark populations and shark fishing in the UAE. There are thought to be about dozens of species of sharks in the UAE.
Scientists on alert as killer whales enter local waters
Abu Dhabi - SEP. 30: Sightings of killer whales close to the shores of Abu Dhabi have piqued the curiosity of scientists, who fear the large black-and-white predators may start hunting the defenceless and endangered dugong that graze in the shallow coastal waters of the Gulf.
Killer whales, also known as orcas, are no threat to humans but they are accomplished predators of large sea creatures, including dugong, and have rarely, if ever, been seen in Gulf waters, according to scientists at the Environment Agency Abu Dhabi (EAD).
The large mammals feed on prey such as dolphins, turtles, squid and octopus – even seals and whales bigger than themselves – and have twice been spotted this year by divers in shallow waters off Taweelah, the new industrial area of Abu Dhabi.
In June, a group of divers spotted and photographed seven orcas.
Early in September, another was seen very close to the same location.
The nearest to the country’s shores they have previously been seen is in the deeper waters of the Strait of Hormuz at the entrance to the Gulf.
“I have been here for nine years and I have never heard reports of orcas venturing inside the Gulf,” said Dr Thabit Zahran al Abdessalaam, director of marine biodiversity management sector at the EAD.
“Ecologically and distribution-wise, the possibility of encountering a killer whale inside the Gulf is very small. This sudden sighting in a number of locations is significant,” he said.
“Killer whales are accomplished hunters... it is an issue we need to look at.”
The offshore sightings are of particular concern as killer whales hunt the dugong, a large herbivorous creature that has no other local predators.
Dugongs, which have paddle-like forelimbs and no hind limbs, use their large downturned snouts to graze on sea grasses, and inhabit the shallow waters and mangrove channels where the grasses are found.
Although legally protected, the animals are in decline in many areas around the world and in danger of extinction.
EAD scientists have begun looking for answers as to why the killer whales are coming close to shore.
The orcas are cetacean mammals like whales, dolphins and porpoises. They have a recognisable black-and-white pattern, but despite their name are actually large dolphins.
Males can reach almost 10 metres in length and females 8.5 metres, and their predatory habits and taste for large prey mean their reported arrival in the Gulf could spell bad news for the defenceless dugongs.
Scientists say it is not clear what has led to the changes in the killer whales’ behaviour and brought them into the shallow coastal waters of the Gulf. They are migratory animals that roam the oceans from the Arctic and Antarctic to tropical seas.
“I don’t know what is triggering this,” said Dr Abdessalaam.
To answer the question, the EAD is to consult leading orca specialists and conservation organisations.
One possible explanation for the killer whales’ sudden appearance might be that changes along their migratory routes are forcing them to venture into new territories.
“We will look if there is a pattern in changes of water and climatic conditions in other parts of the world,” Dr Abdessalaam said. “We will compare that with changes in water, climate and ecological conditions.”
However, he could not say how long it might take to find answers. “At the moment, we are working on formulating the right questions.”