The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has declared a notification circulating on social media, which warns against answering calls from the number 051-7080507, to be fake.
The notification, bearing the PTA logo, claims that responding to calls from this number could expose funds in mobile wallets, including Easypaisa and other mobile accounts, to risk.
The PTA said it had issued no such alert and termed the notification false and misleading.
The authority urged the public not to share or rely on unverified information circulating on social media, and advised citizens to follow its official social media accounts for authentic and verified updates.
Earlier in the day, the PTA chairman told the National Assembly Standing Committee on Interior that the NCCIA had recovered the biometric data of 600,000 people during raids conducted jointly with the PTA.
Briefing the committee, the PTA chairman said that 125 joint raids with the NCCIA had led to the recovery of 25,000 SIM cards and the arrest of 171 suspects.
He said biometric records had been leaked from the facility where they were stored, prompting the Minister of State for Interior to call for stronger security measures to protect the data.
A PTA official told the committee that 1.8 million SIM cards had been blocked over the past two and a half years and that the system was being upgraded in collaboration with NADRA.
