Morocco takes actions against phone scammers as companies continue to alert customers

Day by day, the number of people who fall victim to electronic fraud rises, as Moroccan increasingly depend on their phones to make transactions.

The new trend is causing concern among people whose personal information is shared and sold, without their consent, to phone scammers.

Fraudsters act as representatives of well-known telecommunications companies, telling recipients that they won cash and alluring prizes. Willingly, victims trust the allure of such prizes, and unwittingly they become victims of identity theft and financial fraud.

An anonymous victim of an electronic fraud attempt told Hespress EN that she received a call from a scammer who claimed to be a representative of a famous telecommunication company as part of a survey conducted by them.

The scammer was asking about the personal information, but wittingly the recipient realized that it was a scam and quickly hung up the phone.

The victim added that she promptly reported the scam by reaching out to the telecommunication company and informing them about the fraudulent call.

Unfortunately, not all victims act accordingly, only a few of them report the electronic fraud attempt.

Cases of fraud are increasing and authorities in Morocco are taking the necessary actions.

In an operation carried out by the General Directorate of Territorial Surveillance DGST, judicial authorities from Guersif and Nador detained 9 individuals aged between 21 and 38 years, suspecting their involvement in related to the manipulation of electronic data processing systems for banking information and engaging in fraudulent activities.

The detainees pretended to be members of telecom companies, contacting people and falsely convincing them to win alluring prizes. This was done to mislead the victims into disclosing their confidential banking information, which then would be used to buy phone recharge cards, according to an official source.

Following the investigations conducted by the judicial officials, the suspects were arrested and their identities were determined. The security operation took place in Al Hoceinma, Guersif, and nearby rural areas.

The authorities were able to seize storage devices for digital data, telephone recharge cards, and 20 mobile phones suspected of being used in this criminal activity.

To tackle the issue of stealing personal information of internet users, the CNDP (National Commission for the Protection of Personal Data) signed a joint letter on August 24, 2023, with eleven peer data protection authorities worldwide addressed to GAMMAs.

The reason behind the joint letter is to shed light on data scraping and call for the protection of privacy.

The extraction of data from the websites that average internet users surface can lead to targeted cyber-attacks, identity theft, as well as spam, or unauthorized direct marketing.

The joint letter aimed at “alerting on the main privacy risks associated with data scraping, promoting social media companies and other websites to protect individuals’ personal data from data scraping in order to comply with applicable regulations, and calling these organizations to adopt the necessary measures to minimize the privacy risks associated with data scraping.”