LEA raid on scam call centre in Islamabad, foreigners among 65 arrested

ISLAMABAD: The National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA) in a raid in a scam call centre in the federal capital arrested five foreign nationals among over 65 people.

The law enforcement agency also seized record of the illegal activities at the scam call centre, officials said.

Officials said that five foreigners and more than 60 Pakistani boys and girls running operations of the scam centre were arrested during the raid in Islamabad’s G-10 Sector.

A spokesperson of the agency said that further legal action would be taken against those who provided facilities and security to these persons.

Earlier this month, police arrested 149 people — including 71 foreigners, mostly Chinese — in a raid on a scam call centre in Faisalabad, the National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency said last Thursday.

“During the raid, a large call centre was uncovered, which was involved in Ponzi schemes and investment fraud,” the agency said in a statement.

“Through this fraudulent network, the public was being deceived, and vast sums of money were being illegally collected.”

The agency said they were acting on a tip-off about the network, operating in Faisalabad, a manufacturing centre in the east of the country.

All those arrested were in custody, including 78 Pakistanis and 48 Chinese, as well as citizens from Nigeria, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Zimbabwe and Myanmar.

Some 18 of the 149 were women, it added.

A copy of the police report said victims would initially receive a small return on their first investments, before being persuaded to hand over larger sums of money.

“The charged individuals ran WhatsApp groups where they lured ordinary people by assigning small investment tasks like subscribing to different TikTok and YouTube channels,” it said.

“Later, they shifted them to Telegram links for further online tasks requiring larger investments.”