Policing Internet fraud in Saudi Arabia: expressive gestures or adaptive strategies?

Abstract

This paper contributes to current debates on the policing of Internet fraud by introducing the Saudi Arabian experience. Drawing on field research in the capital city, Riyadh, it assesses the extent to which the Saudi policing response to Internet fraud fits in with contemporary debates on cybercrime control within a late-modern penal framework as theorised in Western literature. It is argued that the only way in which Saudi cybercrime control strategies can be aligned with those followed by Western authorities is in relation to the state's ‘expressive gestures’. In contrast, there is little evidence of plural policing involving networks of calculation deploying instrumental ordering practices and risk-prediction technologies. In addition to the limited relevance in an autocratic society such as Saudi Arabia of the ideological, socio-economic and political conditions that facilitated the emergence of plural policing in Western societies, the Saudi police organisation also appeared unready to engage in networked policing of Internet fraud.

Keywords:

• fraud
• Internet
• cybercrime
• policing
• late modernity

Notes

1. The Follow-up Department, in the headquarters of the Riyadh Police, is responsible for monitoring investigation progress. An officer can be summoned or referred to it by the station manager to be questioned about perceived failures, such as delay in processing cases, inaccuracy of reports and complaints by the public. Disciplinary action may follow.

2. Sarraf is the name used in Saudi Arabia for an automated teller machine (ATM), while a Sarraf card is a type of debit card issued by Saudi banks to their customers. They can only be used at ATMs and Points of Sale. However, the details of this card are a compulsory requirement for registering for Internet and phone banking services.

3. ‘Saudi-style blackmails’ are those incidents where the perpetrator succeeds in obtaining ‘compromising materials’ on the victim electronically and then uses them to extort money from that victim.

4. A full translation of the Saudi Basic Law of Governance is available at: http://www.saudinf.com/main/c541f.htm