The National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA) arrested 33 people on Wednesday in a raid on an illegal call centre in Karachi that allegedly defrauded US citizens. The call centre was located at Shafi Court in Civil Lines, near Hotel Metropole.
NCCIA Karachi chief Tariq Nawaz said the agency acted on a tip-off.
According to Nawaz, the operation obtained and used the personal data of US citizens through unlawful means. Operators posed as representatives of American banks and contacted victims to unlawfully obtain or charge money from their bank accounts and credit cards.
The alleged owners, Ali Jesani and Wajid Riaz, are among those in custody. Investigators recovered a large quantity of laptops, mobile phones and other equipment allegedly used in the scam, along with a substantial amount of data on US citizens stored on the seized devices.
Nawaz said the suspects had been running the call centre for the past seven to eight years.
He urged parents to closely monitor their children for involvement in such scam jobs. He said an FIR for fraud would end their careers and bar them from travelling abroad because of a criminal record.
