NCCIA frees 98 women held in Karachi call centre raid

A judicial magistrate in Karachi released 98 women and an unspecified number of juvenile boys on bail on Thursday, a day after the National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency arrested 273 people at a call centre on Sharea Faisal, Dawn reported. The women and boys had been employed at the centre as call agents.

Nine suspects, among them the owners of the business, were remanded into NCCIA custody, according to Dawn. The remaining suspects were sent to prison on judicial remand. Dawn reported that two of those released were underage boys.

The raid on Nov 4 was carried out during an enquiry into alleged credit card data theft, Dawn reported. Additional Director Shahzad Akbar told a press conference in Karachi on Thursday that the operation took place at premises near Kavish Crown Plaza and that the centre operated under the name Voxtron Solutions, TechJuice reported.

Investigators seized 339 laptops, 152 mobile phones and four computers, Akbar said, according to TechJuice. He said preliminary findings indicated the centre targeted foreign nationals through impersonation, misuse of identity and caller ID spoofing, presenting itself as a debt validation service. Staff allegedly posed as representatives of foreign banks and debt validation firms, contacting people abroad and offering to verify their outstanding financial obligations.

Akbar said the agency had reasonable grounds to suspect the scheme was designed to obtain sensitive personal and financial information, including Social Security numbers and payment card credentials. That information was allegedly used for unauthorised transactions through merchant accounts, with proceeds sent to Pakistan through company accounts and remittance channels.

A case was registered under sections 3, 4, 13, 14, 16 and 26 of the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act, 2016, which cover unauthorised access to data, unauthorised copying or transmission of data, electronic forgery, electronic fraud, unauthorised use of identity information and spoofing. All seized evidence was referred for digital forensic examination.

Relatives of the detainees and local residents protested near the Baloch Colony Bridge on Sharea Faisal, disrupting traffic, TechJuice reported. The protesters demanded the release of those held, putting the number of women arrested at the centre at around 100, and said they had no part in any illegal activity. A traffic police spokesperson said vehicles were diverted to alternative routes, and that traffic was restored by 1:22pm after talks between officials and the protesters.

The NCCIA said last week that it had arrested more than 40 suspects in a raid on another alleged illegal call centre on Sharea Faisal, which it also accused of defrauding foreigners.