This study focused on the causes of the increasing problem of online financial fraud in the Arab States and on the understanding of successful international best practices for dealing with such crimes, improving response procedures, and contributing to their reduction. The study makes recommendations and proposals that have been discussed with international practitioners, specialists, and experts at the regional and international levels.
The data for this study were collected through two groups: AFocus Group was formed to obtain data from private sources through Arab practitioners and specialists to identify types of financial fraud offences and to identify the challenges faced by stakeholders in dealing with those offences, especially the challenge of lack of data on such crimes in public sources. Another group that constituted a team from Naif Arab University for Security Sciences (NAUSS), was formed to obtain data from open sources to identify the criminal methods of fraudulent sites and the challenges facing security agencies in dealing with them. The team, in cooperation with the Interpol, collected about 500 links to fraudulent advertisements (Ads), and further discussed and analyzed study cases of some victims of financial fraud and fraudsters running fraudulent websites.
During a meeting of the focus group, most common financial fraud offences in the Arab States were identified as follows: investment fraud, romance scams, sextortion, phishing, smishing and business e-mail compromise (BEC). The use of 24 criminal methods to commit such crimes has been identified in the Arab States, including the use of reliable websites to publish fraudulent ads (phishing attacks), the introduction of cryptocurrencies to try to hide the tracking and tracing of proceeds of crime outside the borders of the State., A number of false
Saudi government apps in the Google Store have been also spotted. These apps were portraying as "Farjat," "Jude" and "Absher" platforms, some of which were accessed up to 14,000 times. It also identified 22 challenges facing law enforcement, prosecutors, and banks in dealing with financial fraud, the most important of which were slow exchange of data and access to approvals, tracing and recovery of assets/funds, and failure of victims to report.
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