| Whenever things are insecure, the conmen appear to take advantage of the situation. |
[NPASYRIA] Nizar Haloum (a pseudonym), a resident of the Tishreen neighborhood in central Syria’s Hama, refused to be accused of naiveté after being defrauded by a person who claimed to be a security agent who would help him remove his name from the wanted lists of government security branches.
Haloum says that the caller’s tone was similar to that of government security personnel in Hama, and that he mentioned accurate personal and family information about him.
Residents of Hama are subjected to extortion from unidentified persons who contact them impersonating security officials in order to request the transfer of phone balances worth tens of thousands of Syrian pounds, after accusations or threats of arrest.
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The caller deceives their victim by providing information about their work and whereabouts, or previous charges against them or a relative by the security branches, which prompts people to respond to his demands.
SPECIFIC INFORMATION
The caller, who claimed to be from the Military Security branch, accused Haloum of being in contact with bully boyz and told him that his name was circulated at all checkpoints and that he is wanted by the security services.
The caller did not give Haloum any opportunity to ask or inquire, as he reminded him of his full name, address, and relatives outside the country or in outside government-held areas.
He claimed that the purpose of the call was to help him before his case became complicated, according to Haloum.
This was followed by asking him to go to the nearest phone shop and transfer a balance of 30,000 Syrian pounds to the officer’s number.
Haloum said he did not think for a second that he was being subjected to fraud and extortion.
For fear of being arrested, he transferred the balance to the code he received from the caller, who promised him that he would contact him the next day to take the required measures to remove his name from the wanted list circulated at government checkpoints.
"The next day, I called him and the phone was off for days in a row, so I knew I had been scammed."
FEARS
Those who have been subjected to recent extortion have no answers to their questions about how the fraudsters obtained their data and accurate information, some of which actually relates to the security files of family members or close friends.
They do agree that what they have been subjected to is fraud, whether the fraudulent person is a member of government security branches or not.
Ali Tabba’a (a pseudonym), the owner of a phone credit shop, said that recently, many residents came to his shop to request a balance transfer of tens of thousands, the confusion and fear apparent on their faces.
When the shop owner inquires about the reason for transferring large amounts of money, they say they need to use it for the Internet or make a call to a relative outside the country, in addition to other reasons.
Tabba’a stated that a man in his sixties had requested to transfer a balance of 100,000 pounds to two phone number after being threatened with the arrest of his only son.
Although the owner of the shop was not even able to transfer such a large amount, he questioned the old man until he knew the details of the two calls he received.
"I contacted a member of Political Security whom I knew previously and I learned that the branch does not contain any officer of the rank and name that the man mentioned...so I told the man not to be afraid of the fraudster who communicates with him," Tabba’a said.
However,
the man who has no enemies isn't anybody and has never done anything...
this method does not work for people who rush to other stores to transfer the balance out of irrational fear, according to the owner of the store.
DIFFERENT CHARGES
In Syria, the word emni (security) is enough to intimidate even those close to the authorities, especially in cities such as Hama due to the large number of arrests there, in addition to the bad reputation of the security forces and their tendency to extort bribes from the population.
During a decade of war in Syria, and even before it, security members, individuals known as Shabiha, and volunteers for government forces used to blackmail people with different accusations depending on the region.
The accusation of dealing with external parties was common in all over Syria, in addition to charges related to the religious or national affiliation of the residents of the region, which was helped by the multiplicity of security branches, in addition to the reports of the Ba’ath Party faction.
Security forces also extorted bribes through other even more serious allegations, such as threatening the security of the state, attempting to weaken the nation’s resolve, undermining the prestige of the state, or cutting out parts of Syria and annexing them to a foreign country.
More than 152,000 detainees are still in the prisons of the Syrian authorities, including about 40,000 women, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Suzan Samudi (pseudonym), a woman who lives in Hama, received two calls in a row accusing her of working with the opposition.
"The caller yelled at me and cursed me because I didn’t answer the first time," she said.
"He claimed to be from State Security and asked for information about my place of residence and the name of my father. I heard his voice after that saying to another: Yes, sir, this is the wanted woman," she said.
The person called her again for the third time to ask to transfer a balance of 15,000 Syrian pounds to help her, asking her not to disclose the matter to anyone until the charge is removed from all lists.
Fearing arrest, the woman rushed to transfer the balance to the number, which has been out of service since that day.
Because of her fear, she did not go to work for several days, when a friend who knew her secret told her that she had previously been subjected to fraud of the same kind. 
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