Lahore: The National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA) Lahore arrested 11 suspects during separate operations targeting cyber fraud networks and illegal call centres, recovering laptops, mobile phones, computers, and incriminating digital data.
According to the NCCIA spokesperson on Thursday, the operations were conducted under the directives of Punjab NCCIA Director Hasam Bin Iqbal against groups involved in obtaining citizens’ financial details by posing as bank officials and running unauthorized Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) call centres.
In a crackdown involving an alleged fraud of approximately Rs 1 million, the NCCIA arrested Muhammad Aslam, Muhammad Huzaifa, Abdul Rauf, Jan Muhammad, Muhammad Asghar, and Umar Usman. The suspects allegedly posed as bank managers to lure citizens into opening bank accounts used for withdrawing fraudulent funds. Two mobile phones were recovered from them.
In a separate raid at an illegal call centre located in Al-Qadir Plaza, Gulberg III, the agency apprehended Ahsan Rizwan, Muhammad Ahmed, and Irfan Khalid Hussain, recovering eight laptops and three mobile phones containing VoIP software, card details, and phone numbers. Furthermore, a raid on another call centre in Barkat Market, Garden Town, led to the arrest of Adeel Shehzad and Ali Adnan, with the seizure of five laptops, six computers, and a mobile phone used for targeting citizens in the United Kingdom and other countries.
The NCCIA stated that the recovered digital devices were sent for forensic analysis, while investigators were probing financial transactions, identifying additional victims, and tracking down other members linked to the syndicates.