PTA and Meta block 176,000 WhatsApp accounts on recycled SIMs
The regulator has shared about 10 million recycled numbers with the platform and will send 5,000 a month to catch accounts left active after old SIMs were cancelled.
ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority and Meta have blocked 176,000 WhatsApp accounts registered on recycled mobile numbers, acting against a fraud route that opens when a cancelled SIM's number is issued to a new subscriber.
PTA officials said the accounts were blocked at the authority's request, after complaints that recycled numbers were being used to commit cyber fraud over WhatsApp. The regulator approached Meta for a joint fix, and the blocking is the first result of that engagement.
About 10 million recycled numbers have been handed to Meta for verification. The two sides have also agreed a standing mechanism under which 5,000 recycled numbers will be sent to the platform every month, so that accounts registered against them can be identified and deactivated. The blocking will be carried out in phases.
Telecom operators in Pakistan hold about 16 million recycled numbers, according to PTA officials. An account created against such a number can stay active after the original SIM has been deactivated or cancelled. Officials said a new subscriber who acquires that number can then reach an account they never registered, which is where the opportunity for fraud and cybercrime sits.
Meta resolved 82% of the complaints the regulator forwarded to it during the previous year, the officials said. They described that as evidence of closer coordination between the authority and the platform.
The authority said the arrangement is meant to protect mobile subscribers and to stop WhatsApp accounts being misused once telecom operators recycle their numbers.
ProPakistani, citing PTA figures, reported that Pakistan has 100 million WhatsApp users, who send about 12 billion messages a day.
How the reports differ
Business Recorder and TechJuice carry the same core figures: 176,000 accounts blocked, about 10 million numbers shared with Meta, 5,000 a month under the new mechanism, 16 million numbers held by operators and 82% of forwarded complaints resolved. Daily Pakistan's headline credits the blocking to Meta alone, where the other reports present it as a joint PTA and Meta action taken at the regulator's request. ProPakistani gives no figure for the block, reporting instead PTA data that Pakistan has 100 million WhatsApp users sending about 12 billion messages a day.
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