Daijiworld Media Network - Dubai (SR)

Dubai, Jul 8: Qayyum Abdul Haq, a Pakistani crane operator, here lost his life's savings, totalling Dh 127,500, in a debit card forgery fraud, a media report said.

As per the Gulf News report the amount was fraudulently transferred from his Dubai-based Emirates NBD account without his knowledge. “As I was handling the crane, I did not check the text messages right away. When I checked an hour or so later, I was shocked to see there were three messages saying my money was transferred out to three accounts,” he said.

The 69 year old told Gulf news that he was using the same bank account for the past 25 years and it took him all this while to save this heard-earned salary amount. He also added that he has never used a credit card in his life nor done an online banking transaction.

“How could this have happened? I never had an online account. The same day of the fraudulent transfer, someone criminally created an online bank account in my name and took my money out,” he said, as per Gulf News. He also added that he received two messages on the same day of the forgery showing two failed OTP (one-time password) attempts, but the third attempt went through.

Abdul Haq has registered a complaint with the Dubai-based Emirates NBD and Dubai Police.