KARACHI: The National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA) has busted an “international cartel” involved in cyber fraud amounting to $60 million, arresting 15 foreign nationals and recovering 10,000 international SIMs during a raid in Karachi’s Defence Housing Authority (DHA), Sindh home minister revealed on Thursday.
Addressing a press conference in Karachi along with NCCIA Additional Director Tariq Nawaz, Sindh Home Minister Zia-ul-Hassan Lanjar shared the details of the investigations, saying the held scammers were “operating online investment scam, where criminals build trust over weeks/months via social media platforms by tricking the victims into investment in cryptocurrency, forex with promise of large profit returns”.
“The victims were lured into investment by creating a login on fake investment platforms (which the victims considered as legitimate due to the fake conversation and activity in telegraph groups) which were controlled and managed by these scammers where the victims were made to believe that this is their investment portal login and time to time they were shown high profits in that fake online portal,” Lanjar said.
The home minister said that a total of 15 foreigners, including three women and 19 Pakistani nationals, were arrested last week during a joint raid by NCCIA and other intelligence and law enforcement agencies in DHA Phase 1 and Phase 6.
Lanjar informed the attendees that an “international cartel” was involved in the scam.
“We recovered 37 computers and 40 mobile phones, along with over 10,000 international SIMs and six unlawful gateway exchanges, ” he stated, adding that the confiscated items were mainly used in “creating fake accounts on social media and Telegram to generate a fake audience and participants in groups mainly on Telegram.“
He said these foreign SIMs were used to receive PIN codes and one-time passwords (OTPs) during the creation of Telegram IDs, and also to communicate on WhatsApp, if required.
Lanjar said the scammers’ main parts of business pertained to “managing and creating Telegram accounts, groups and social media accounts using foreign SIMs to target convincing victims and luring them to invest”.
“Other parts of the business were related to the collection and routing of funds in bank accounts of a target country, which involves local arrangements and conversion of funds into Crypto and movement across borders to the main beneficiaries.”
The home minister revealed that “the technical and financial investigation has led to a series of further developments which are being investigated.”
Modus operandi
The home minister said the scammers’ modus operandi was to “give hope” to locals and foreigners that their money was being invested in business and profit was also being shown, but it was not being sent into the victims’ accounts”.
He revealed that when the amount reached $5,000, the scammers started asking the victims/customers to submit a fee under different pretexts, and when the money was deposited, the suspects used to block the accounts.
The minister estimated that this fraud “amounted to $60m.
Responding to a question, the minister said he was holding a press conference after a “comprehensive” investigation by the NCCIA, as it was a “serious issue” in which foreigners from two or three countries were involved, with whom Pakistan had important relations, thus he was waiting for a proper investigation report to share it with the media.
He said the foreign and interior ministries had taken up this issue of the involvement of foreigners in the scam with their countries.
“The government and law enforcers tended to provide security and protocol to foreigners, but legal action would be taken against them if found involved in criminal activity.”
However, the home minister avoided repeated questions about revealing the nationality of held foreigners.
Lanjar said he also received calls from the citizens, complaining that “illegal” call centres were being used for fraud, narcotics and other crimes.
He said the NCCIA centres in Hyderabad and Sukkur were also receiving complaints about such fraud and crimes.
To a question regarding the law which governs these call centres, Lanjar replied that the “federal government gives no objection certificates (NOCs) and regulates them”.
He affirmed, “Things will not get resolved after these arrests; we need to work more.”
NCCIA Additional Director Tariq Nawaz said that both “foreign nationals and locals were involved in this, and the victims had not only been locals but foreign nationals, too.“
“Crime has no boundaries, and the cyber world has no specific geographical locations.”
He termed this as just the “tip of the iceberg”.
“We hope that after this action, there will be a significant decline in online fraud.”
On Sunday, a judicial magistrate sent 22 suspects, including eight foreign nationals, to prison on judicial remand in the following case.
NCCIA had registered a case against the held suspects under various provisions of the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (Peca) and the Pakistan Penal Code.
