NCCIA arrests 154 in twin-city raids on illegal call centres
The agency says 37 of the suspects blackmailed victims for up to three years and warns young people against taking jobs at such outfits.
The National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency has arrested 154 people, including 53 women, in a three-day operation against two illegal call centres in Islamabad and Rawalpindi, the agency said at a press conference on Saturday.
NCCIA Additional Director Muhammad Shoaib Khan said 143 suspects, 43 of them women, were arrested at a call centre in Islamabad. In Rawalpindi, officers raided a centre run from a residential house and arrested 11 people, 10 of them women.
The agency said both centres belonged to networks that defrauded and blackmailed people in several South Asian countries. Suspects offered loans to persuade victims into installing mobile applications, then used the apps to reach personal data, photographs and other material stored on their phones, according to the NCCIA. Photographs and videos were edited into obscene material and used to threaten and harass victims, it said.
Shoaib Khan said 37 of those arrested had been involved in blackmail and harassment for two to three years. Cases have been registered against all the suspects and investigations are continuing.
Dawn reported that Shoaib Khan told the press conference that loopholes in the existing system were being exploited by illegal call centres, online betting operators and international fraud networks to launder money and trap victims. Fake companies were registered with weak verification, and bank accounts opened in their names were then linked to loan apps and to betting and gaming portals to receive and move illicit funds.
He said the agency would keep a zero-tolerance policy against cyber fraud networks and announced a major crackdown on fraud carried out in the name of online betting and gaming. Such platforms typically show users early profits to win their trust before emptying their accounts, he said.
He urged parents to monitor their children's activities and warned young people against accepting jobs at illegal call centres for attractive salaries, saying such work could leave them with a criminal record and damage their careers. He also advised people not to install suspicious loan applications or share photographs, phone data and details of relatives with unknown individuals or online platforms.
How the reports differ
TechJuice put the total number of women arrested at 53 and reported that cases had been registered against all the suspects and that investigations were continuing, details the other two reports did not carry. Minute Mirror gave the city-wise split of the arrests and said the 37 blackmail suspects had been active for three years, where TechJuice said two to three years. Dawn led on Shoaib Khan's warning about loopholes in company registration and bank verification rather than on the arrests themselves.
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