KUWAIT CITY, May 20: An expatriate in Kuwait narrowly avoided falling victim to a sophisticated phone scam on Tuesday morning. At around 10 a.m., he received a call from a number beginning with 3455. The caller claimed to be a passport officer and requested his date of birth, Civil ID number, and the names of the banks he deals with. Believing the caller represented the Ministry of Interior, the expat initially complied.
The caller then proceeded to list the first four digits of the expat’s bank card and asked him to complete the remaining numbers. At that moment, the expat recalled similar scams he had read about in the Arab Times news and refused to continue. He told the caller that any further communication should come through an official summons—either from a police station or via the “Sahel” government platform—before ending the call.
Shortly after, he received another call from a number beginning with 3456. This time, the caller claimed to be a higher-ranking officer and reprimanded the expat for not cooperating. When the expat again refused to share more information, the caller threatened him with a KD 500 fine. The expat stood firm, stating he would rather pay the fine than risk handing over sensitive bank details, and ended the call.
When later asked if he had been fined, the expat confirmed that no penalty had been issued.
A security source confirmed that this was a clear case of attempted fraud, using tactics often employed by scammers targeting expats online. He clarified that the numbers used do not exist within Kuwait’s official telecom network. The Ministry of Interior, he emphasized, never requests bank information from citizens or residents over the phone, and any banking updates should only be handled in person at one’s bank branch. He urged the public to ignore and report such calls.
