ISLAMABAD – Pakistan’s fight against identity and financial fraud has uncovered a disturbing loophole in the country’s biometric SIM system, with officials warning that scammers may be getting their hands on fingerprints and using weaknesses in verification mechanisms to fuel cybercrime.
The alarming revelations emerged during a National Assembly committee briefing, where Minister of State for Interior Tallal Chaudhry disclosed that authorities have blocked a staggering 18.2 million illegal SIM cards over the past two and a half years.
But despite the massive crackdown, officials admitted that the existing system has still failed to fully shut down identity theft and financial fraud.
PTA Chairman retired Major General Hafeezur Rehman told lawmakers that fraudsters were allegedly obtaining fingerprints from places such as airports, passport offices and driving licence centres, while the possibility of biometric data being accessed through NADRA was also raised.
The PTA chief said criminals were managing to bypass the biometric safeguards designed to verify identities before SIM cards are issued.
The scale of the crackdown was further highlighted by NCCIA Director Irfanullah Khan, who revealed that investigators had seized 195 active SIM cards and 81 ATM cards allegedly being used by scammers.
Joint operations by the NCCIA and PTA have resulted in raids on 110 facilities, the blocking of around 29,000 illegal SIM cards and the arrest of 171 suspects. Investigators also recovered data belonging to approximately 600,000 people.
Officials also sounded the alarm over the growing use of rented and mule bank accounts, which can be used to move or conceal money generated through scams.
Chaudhry urged telecom operators to reinforce their security systems and work more closely with the PTA to prevent criminals from exploiting weaknesses in telecom networks.
The PTA has proposed a major overhaul of the SIM registration process, recommending that SIMs be issued exclusively through NADRA’s PAKID system.
An SBP official put forward another possible safeguard , linking each SIM card to a single IMEI number.
MNA Khawaja Izharul Hassan suggested an additional layer of protection: citizens should receive an automatic SMS alert whenever another SIM is registered against their CNIC, potentially allowing suspicious registrations to be spotted immediately.
The committee has now directed the Interior Ministry to bring together the SBP, PTA, NCCIA and telecom operators to develop legislative, regulatory and technical measures to tackle illegal SIMs and strengthen Pakistan’s defences against cyber-enabled fraud.
