Recent years have witnessed several cyber attacks
targeted against the largest and most prolific global corporations
and banks and have left many vulnerable to attacks threatening
one's personal data. Against this background, there has been
a significant increase in states' efforts to combat
cybercrime and online fraud. The Middle East is no exception to
this phenomenon. The Kingdom of Bahrain has witnessed a sharp climb
in the frequency of cyber attacks, online fraud and scams targeting
individuals as opposed to corporations. The most notable of these
are the BenefitPay and Aramex scams in which citizens receive
fraudulent SMS messages containing links directing the customer to
enter payment information, following which people have reported
losing large amounts of money. In this article, we consider how
Bahrain has regulated cybercrime more generally as well as IT
crimes and online fraud, what criminal penalties are prescribed
under the law, and how individuals may
