Criminal defence
Cybercrime Defence
If the police have contacted you about something posted or sent online, if money has left your account after a convincing call, or if someone is threatening to publish your private photographs, the first hours decide how much of the evidence still exists. Accounts get closed, messages get deleted and transferred funds move on quickly.
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The short answer
This page sets out the main categories of online offence dealt with here, how a complaint is reported and investigated, what to do if you have been accused, what to do if you are the victim, and how evidence on devices and accounts should be preserved.
We are a licensed advocate practice in Dubai. If you need a cyber crime lawyer in Dubai, to defend a complaint or to file one properly, call +971 50 747 9570 or email help@lawyerindubai.ae before anything is deleted.
What counts as a cybercrime here
The UAE treats conduct carried out through a device, an account or a network as its own area of criminal law, dealt with under a federal decree-law rather than the general criminal provisions alone. The categories below are the ones we see most.
Online fraud and phishing
Fake investment platforms, cloned bank messages, calls claiming to be from a bank or a courier, marketplace sales that never arrive, recruitment offers that ask for a fee, and romance approaches that end in a transfer request. Online fraud in Dubai usually reaches us after the money has already gone.
Account hacking and takeover
Email, social media, business messaging and banking accounts taken over, often through a credential that was reused or a link that was clicked. The takeover is frequently the first step towards fraud against the account holder’s own contacts.
Blackmail and extortion
Threats to publish private images, recordings or messages unless money is paid. This is treated as a crime against the person being threatened, which is worth saying plainly, because embarrassment keeps many people from reporting it until they have paid several times.
Images and recordings
Taking, keeping, sending or publishing images or recordings of another person without their consent, including material that was originally shared willingly between two people. Sharing on is treated as its own act.
Insult and defamation online
Messages, posts, comments and reviews that attack or make allegations about an identifiable person. This sits across both areas and is covered in more detail on our page for defamation lawyers in Dubai.
Unlawful access to data and systems
Getting into a system or a dataset without authority, including by a current or former employee using credentials they still hold, and copying or passing on data that belongs to an employer.
Where the line falls
People ask about tools and workarounds rather than acts: privacy software, second accounts, screen recording, automated messaging. The answer usually depends on what the tool was used to do rather than the tool itself.
What the penalties are
We publish no fines, sentence lengths or deportation consequences on this site. The provisions have been amended, the categories are not equivalent to each other, and a figure copied from an older article is actively misleading. We will explain the exposure on your facts.
How a complaint is reported and investigated
Where a report is made
Dubai has an online platform for reporting electronic crimes alongside the police app and the stations themselves. Which channel is appropriate depends on the category and on whether anyone is in immediate danger.
What happens after the report
The police record the complaint, take a statement, examine the material and refer the file to the Public Prosecution, which decides whether a case is brought. Cases involving accounts, devices or transfers go through a technical examination, which is usually why a cybercrime case in Dubai takes as long as it does.
Devices, passwords and accounts
These investigations turn on material held on a phone, a laptop or a platform, which means devices are examined and account access is sought. Understand your position before handing anything over.
Cases that cross borders
The person behind an online fraud is often outside the country, and the account or the receiving bank may be too. That does not mean the complaint is pointless, but it changes what is realistic.
If you have been accused
Before you say anything
Attend if you are called, and speak to a criminal lawyer in Dubai first. What you say in the first statement goes into the file and stays there. Write out your own account with dates before you go, and bring the material that supports it rather than describing it from memory.
What not to do
Do not delete messages, accounts, call logs or files. Do not reset a device or clear a chat history. Do not contact the complainant directly, and do not send money to make it go away without advice. Do not post about the case anywhere.
What the defence usually turns on
Whether it was actually you who used the account or the device. Whether the access complained of was authorised at the time. What the full exchange says rather than the extracted part. Whether the material was obtained properly. Whether the act alleged matches the category charged, which is frequently where these files are weakest. Our page on criminal cases in Dubai explains the wider process the file follows.
What happens to the case afterwards
Whether a complainant can end the matter by withdrawing, what follows a judgment, and what a conviction means for residency are all specific questions rather than general ones.
If you are the victim
Online fraud: the first hour
Stop any further payment. Contact your bank immediately and record the time you did it. Keep the transfer receipt, the account details you sent to, the advertisement or message that started it, and every communication. Then report it. Speed is the only real advantage you have.
Blackmail over private material
Do not pay. Payment almost never ends it and it funds the next demand. Do not delete the conversation, because it is the evidence. Save the account details, the threats and the timestamps, and report it. These complaints are taken seriously and you are not the one at risk of being blamed for having been targeted.
A hacked account
Secure what you still control, change credentials on other accounts that share the same password, and record what was sent from the account while it was not yours. If messages went to your contacts asking for money, tell them directly and keep a copy of what was sent.
Getting content taken down
Removal is handled separately from the criminal complaint, through the platform and through the relevant authority.
Evidence on devices and accounts
What to preserve
The original device wherever possible, the full conversation rather than one message, account names and handles, links, timestamps, transfer receipts, bank correspondence, and the details of anyone else who received the material.
How to preserve it
Capture whole screens rather than cropped extracts. Do not edit, annotate or compress the images. Do not reinstall an application or reset a device before the material has been taken off it properly. Keep an unaltered copy separately from the one you send around.
Why the original matters
A screenshot proves what a screen showed. It does not always prove who sent it, from where, or what came before it. Where that is disputed, the device itself and the account records carry the weight.
Where cybercrime and defamation overlap
A single file often contains both. Words posted online can engage the online offence provisions and the general insult and defamation provisions at once, and a complaint that starts as a hacking allegation often ends up including what was published afterwards. Handle them as one matter. Our defamation page covers the wording side in detail.
What we do and what it costs
We act for people under investigation, for people already charged, and for victims who need a complaint filed in a form that will actually be investigated. That means advising before the first statement, attending where permitted, filing written submissions to the Public Prosecution, and challenging technical evidence that does not prove what it is said to prove.
Charging is based on the stage and the scope of the work, never on the outcome, and the basis is on our legal fees page.
Questions people ask us
I sent money to an online investment site and it has stopped replying. Is anything possible?
Report it immediately and tell your bank on the same day. Recovery depends on how fast the funds are traced and where they went, so the useful window is measured in hours rather than weeks. Nobody can promise you an outcome, and you should not believe anyone who does.
Someone is threatening to send my photos to my family. What do I do?
Do not pay, do not delete the conversation, and report it. The threat is the offence. Bring us the account details, the messages and the timeline, and we will file it properly.
Can I be prosecuted for something I posted before I came to the UAE?
That depends on where the act took place, where the material was accessible and who was affected. It is a genuine question rather than a rhetorical one, and it needs to be answered on your facts.
My employer says I took company data. Is that a criminal matter?
It can be, and these complaints are often filed alongside a civil or labour dispute. What matters is what access you actually held, what was taken, and when the authority to hold it ended.
The person who complained wants to withdraw. Is it over?
Not automatically. In some categories a withdrawal ends the case and in others the prosecution continues. Check which applies before anyone agrees terms.
Do I need a lawyer if I have only been asked to attend for a statement?
That is the stage where advice changes the most. A file that the Public Prosecution closes never becomes a court case, and the material that persuades a prosecutor to close it is usually available at the beginning.
Speak to a cyber crime lawyer in Dubai
Whether you have been accused or targeted, the first task is the same: secure the evidence and find out what the file actually says. Do not delete anything, and do not reply to the other side before you have advice.
Call us on +971 50 747 9570 or email help@lawyerindubai.ae. Our office is at Empire Height Towers, Marasi Drive, Business Bay, Dubai. You can also reach us through our contact page.
Related pages: criminal lawyers in Dubai, defamation lawyers in Dubai, legal fees.
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