Silhouettes of people wearing balaclavas are cut out while posing with a laptop in front of a screen projected with the word “cybercrime” and a binary code. PHOTO: REUTERS
KARACHI:
The National Cyber Crime Investigation Unit (NCCIA) in Karachi has dismantled an organized international fraud ring in an intelligence-driven operation, arresting 15 foreigners and 19 Pakistanis involved in large-scale online investment scams.
The group allegedly targeted victims via social media, gaining their trust for weeks and months before luring them with false promises of high returns from cryptocurrencies and forex trading.
The development was revealed by Sindh Home Minister Zia-ul-Hassan Lanjar in a press conference on Thursday along with NCCIA Sindh chief Tariq Nawaz. He said the arrests were made during coordinated raids in Phase I and Phase VI of the DHA, adding that the foreign suspects included 12 men and three women.
According to the Interior Minister, the suspects persuaded the victims to open accounts on fake investment platforms, which appeared credible due to written conversations and activity generated by automated robots in Telegram groups.
The groups were completely controlled and managed by the fraudsters themselves. Victims were shown fabricated online dashboards posing as legitimate investment portals, where fake profits were periodically displayed to boost trust and encourage new investments.
Lanjar said the operation also led to the recovery of more than 10,000 foreign SIM cards, along with six illegal portal sharing setups, which were used to create fake social media and Telegram accounts.
The SIMs were mainly used to receive PIN and OTP codes during Telegram account verification and, when necessary, to contact via WhatsApp. The goal was to artificially inflate group membership and activity to make the plans appear authentic.
He said technical and financial investigations had uncovered additional leads that were still being investigated.
The fraud ring’s operations included creating and managing Telegram accounts, groups and social media profiles using foreign SIM cards, persuading victims to invest through Telegram groups, funneling funds to bank accounts in specific countries, converting the money into cryptocurrency, and transferring it across borders to primary beneficiaries.
Items confiscated from the suspects included 37 computers, 40 mobile phones, more than 10,000 international SIM cards and six illegal hotspots.
The Home Minister said that the NCCIA Sindh, under the leadership of Tariq Nawaz, was actively investigating cyber crime cases across the province.
He added that the operation was due to a raid carried out on December 18 at a call center, after numerous complaints of fraud. Without naming them, he said the arrested foreigners belonged to several friendly countries, adding that criminal activity should not be used to defame any country.
He said the suspects had been defrauding people both within Pakistan and abroad, with transactions estimated at around $60 million.
Lanjar further revealed that authorities had also received complaints about drug use within call centers and said other illegal call centers were being monitored.
