Two jailed, face deportation for purchasing 77 phones with stolen credit cards

TDT | Manama

Email: mail@newsofbahrain.com

Two sisters flew into Bahrain and, in the space of just three months, racked up 77 mobile phones using stolen credit cards from a Gulf country.

Their ringleader, an Arab man still on the run, took care of the data side.

The women handled the pickups and sales.

The phones were delivered to their flat, and they sold the lot.

Now the High Criminal Court has handed down a six-year sentence to the mastermind and fined him BD100,000. The sisters got four years each.

The court also ordered the confiscation of BD21,846.639 in proceeds and ruled they be deported once they serve their time.

Pattern

The case came to light when a well-known electronics firm noticed a pattern.

Orders kept pouring in online. Payment came from an Arab country, but the boxes landed in Bahrain. Something didn’t add up.

A police lieutenant from the Financial Intelligence National Centre dug deeper.

He found 77 phones, worth nearly BD31,000, had been bought through the same channels between September and December 2024.

Orders

The orders were traced to one address, the flat rented by the two women.

They were arrested, questioned, and they talked.

The sisters said they came to Bahrain after the lead suspect offered them a role helping shift smart devices.

They each took home BD1,500, which they sent to family in the Gulf.

They had local SIM cards registered in their names. They gave him their email addresses and flat details.

The orders were made under their names. The scam, it seems, ran like clockwork. The ringleader fed stolen card data into the electronics shop’s website.

Once the phones arrived, the women sold them and wired the proceeds to him, sometimes through currency exchanges, sometimes using go-betweens.

One of those helpers later said he agreed to send money on behalf of one of the sisters because she claimed her visit visa didn’t allow direct transfers.

She told him it was for her mother’s medical treatment.

A payment service worker added to the case, confirming that several banks had raised the alarm over dodgy payments tied to the same retailer.

In total, BD31,081.366 had been charged to various cards issued by Gulf banks.

Prosecutors said the transfers and the coordination pointed to a clear scam.

They charged all three with laundering the proceeds of online fraud.

Funds

The main defendant was also charged with stealing funds by using card data he wasn’t supposed to have.

The sisters were accused of helping him by buying SIMs, renting a flat, and setting up the deliveries.

Once the scam was up and running, they handed over the phones, took their slice, and sent the rest abroad.