I have personally been subjected to numerous scam attempts that fortunately did not succeed. Among them were repeated phone calls at spaced intervals from individuals speaking in a Gulf dialect that, to my Egyptian ear, sounded perfectly convincing. They falsely claimed to be calling from the bank or the police and asked for my ID details and bank account information. Honestly, the first time I was hesitant\u2014I did not know whether it was a scam or something legitimate. But I remembered the warning bulletins issued by Qatar\u2019s Ministry of Interior about such suspicious calls, so I did not respond to any caller. <\/p>\n\n
Over time, I became skilled at recognizing such scammers from their very first sentence. I even began taking the initiative, asking the caller, \u201cSo what do you want now\u2014my bank account number and my ID number, right?\u201d <\/p>\n\n
They would pause briefly, after which I would tell them there was no need to attempt to scam me. Sometimes I deliberately wasted their time by asking questions that eventually led me to give them false information. On one occasion, I advised the caller that unlawfully taking people\u2019s money is a grave sin and urged him to repent. He apologized and hung up. <\/p>\n\n
The imagination of fraudsters has gone so far that they now call pretending to be police officers\u2014a tactic that several Gulf countries, including Qatar and Kuwait, have warned against. Authorities have emphasized that the police never request bank account details or ID information over the phone. <\/p>\n\n \n\n