TRA Launches “Don’t Be Deceived” Campaign

17/12/2017

The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) launched today the campaign “Don’t be deceived” to educate customers in general, and the youth in particular, about the different ways of deception and fraud on smart devices and various modern technologies. The launch of the campaign was announced at a press conference held at the Emirates Towers in Dubai, in the presence of a group of media representatives.

The campaign is intended to raise awareness of deception and fraud through smart devices. This includes cyber blackmail, spam SMS and phone calls, and malware, through which the attacker attempts to steal the users data, break their privacy, and steal their money, causing great losses at the level of individuals, institutions and countries, as electronic fraud has become one of the most common methods of attack and penetration.

In this context, Mohammed Gheyath, Executive Director Information Security Regulatory Affairs in TRA, said: “This campaign is launched in a deliberate manner in order to spread the message to all the targeted segments of society, according to the most appropriate method. We have held a special workshop for children and adolescents, as well as the innovative awareness workshop ‘Virus Attack’, in which children learn the principles of safe and positive interaction with electronic devices and social media in a way that combines pleasure and benefit, through an interactive animated movie that they live its story and participate in its puzzles and activities, to defend the earth from the virus attack.”

Gheyath added: “The workshop included four main topics: the cyber blackmail, through which young men and women are tempted to introduce themselves, and then engaged in inappropriate dialogues followed by exchange of images, videos and video chats in indecent manner, in which the criminals film the victims without their knowledge. At the end, they blackmail the victims by asking for money in exchange of not exposing them to their family and community. The second topic was about phishing emails sent to the victims containing infected links or files, and deceiving the victims to open them claiming they concern them or about a particular incident that happened to them, and thus raising their curiosity to open the contaminated files. Upon opening the files, the victims’ device is hacked and their files and data are stolen. The third topic was about protection of social media networks, by addressing their most important associated risks, ways of breaking them, and their consequences, such as impersonating the victim and publishing inappropriate posts through his account, with reference to ways to prevent the penetration and steps to recover the account or report abuse. The fourth topic included spam calls in which the caller claims to be from a known company or entity, alleging that the victim has won a valuable prize, and therefore, asking the victim to send his ID, bank card, or deposit an amount of money.”

The campaign started a few months ago in various parts of the UAE, through the students’ centers and camps. More than 200 awareness workshops have been provided to more than 4000 students, and more than 100 trainers have been trained. Regarding persons of determination, collaboration has been made with Sharjah City of Humanitarian Services and Al Noor Center for the Care of Disabled in Abu Dhabi, to train the trainers to present workshops to persons of determination in a suitable way. Thirty-five trainers have been trained for this purpose.

As for parents, an interactive awareness workshop has been organized, including live hacking experiences, to educate them about the risks of electronic fraud towards themselves and their children, and ways to protect their children in the cyber world in terms of technology and education. These workshops will be held in various emirates, in accessible public places, and it will be announced through various social media platforms. The first session will be held at Zayed Bin Mohammed Family Gathering in Al-Khawaneej on Friday 22/12/2017 at 9:00 p.m. for youth and university students. Moreover, awareness-raising contest will be organized on these risks, and they will be prepared to become ambassadors on the subject among their peers, as well as preparing awareness materials and disseminating them on social media to convey the message to different segments of society.