Dubai police seized a large quantity of Chinese pens that can be used in forgery with its vanishing ink, prompting the central bank to send an alert to banks operating in the UAE, a newspaper said on Wednesday.
A police officer said samples seized during raids on some shops showed these pens, dubbed "the magic pens" can be used to forge official documents and other fraud operations as their ink vanishes within few hours.
"We have received information that these types of pens entered the UAE illegally…we charged our anti-crime squad with the task of verifying these information and the drive resulted in the seizure of such pens, which are sold for cheap prices," said Brigadier Khalil Al Mansouri, director of the detective and criminal investigation department in Dubai.
"After we seized the pens, we notified the central bank so it will warn banks in the country to be careful and avert any swindling operation by these pens."
Mansouri said no fraud or forgery case involving these pens had so far been detected in the UAE, adding the measures taken by the police department were precautionary. "It is important to warn and educate the society, mainly the business and economic community, about new criminal and fraud techniques."
In a letter sent to banks this week, the central bank warned them against these Chinese pens, which it said could be used easily in forgery.
"Banks are urged not to use customers' pens to sign on any official document and cheques to avert those Chinese pens…banks are advised to use only their own pens and to be extremely cautious when completing transactions with normal pens," the central bank said.
"This Chinese pen look like a normal pen but its ink is different as it disappears from cheques, documents and other types of paper, rendering those documents valueless…these pens are very cheap and are entering the UAE illegally."
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