A security source who briefed Al-Anba described how the victim received an unsolicited call from a man claiming to be an officer in the cybercrime department. The caller, believed to be of Arab nationality yet fluent in the Kuwaiti dialect, asserted that the citizen’s bank account had been hacked and offered to protect the funds by arranging a replacement card. The source noted that the impersonator recited precise account details to build credibility, overcoming the victim’s initial skepticism that no breach had occurred.
Despite the citizen’s insistence that his account remained secure, the conversation continued until the caller secured sufficient confirmation to execute transactions remotely. Five separate deductions then emptied the account of KD 10,995, leaving a zero balance that the victim discovered only afterward. The 67-year-old immediately filed a complaint with authorities, prompting an investigation that remains active, the security source told Al-Anba.
The case forms part of a persistent wave of bank frauds in Kuwait, where impersonators exploit public fears of digital theft to extract sensitive information. The Interior Ministry’s cybercrime department logged around 3,000 such incidents in the preceding year, a figure cited in earlier ministry briefings that underscores the scale of the threat. Lieut-Colonel Ammar Al-Sarraf of the department has stated that police and banks never solicit account details or verification codes over the phone.
Al-Sarraf told KUNA in a prior interview that fraudulent communications impersonating official entities remain the leading scam category, often leveraging local numbers and dialects for credibility. A coordination unit formed in 2023 has closed thousands of suspicious sites and disconnected hundreds of fake messaging lines, according to ministry tallies. These steps reflect sustained efforts to dismantle the technical backbone of such operations before they reach the public.
Earlier examples include an April 2025 incident in which a 69-year-old lost KD 37,000 to a nearly identical impersonation tactic, previous reporting by Al-Anba that Gulf News referenced at the time showed. In February 2026 the Ministry of Interior announced the dismantling of an international network accused of laundering more than KD 100 million through fake firms and phishing sites, Times Kuwait reported. The operation, overseen by the interior minister, resulted in nine arrests and the seizure of cash along with devices linked to the fraud.
Kuwait’s cybercrime framework, governed by Law 63 of 2015, assigns primary investigative responsibility to the Criminal Investigations Department’s dedicated unit, a Commoner Law overview of the statutes noted. The Ministry of Interior continues to direct the public to ignore unsolicited requests for banking data and to report them immediately through official portals. Investigators are tracing the five transactions in the latest case, with the security source indicating that timely complaints can support both prosecution and potential asset recovery.
