FIA arrests fake jobs promising website, SMS service operator

He used to promise youngsters jobs in various government departments and created job websites for each department.

LAHORE: The National Response Centre of Cyber Crimes (NR3C) of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has arrested a civil engineer for allegedly scamming thousands of people via 300 fake websites for Rs80 million.

The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) said on Thursday that they had arrested Tariq, a civil engineer by profession who had allegedly set up about 300 fake job websites. Using a mix of online and SMS texts wherein he promised jobs in different federal and provincial government institutions, he managed to scam thousands of applicants.

FIA officials who had knowledge of the matter told The Express Tribune that they had conducted a probe after receiving a number of complaints. They found that he had created fake websites of various government departments, corporations, companies, authorities, and agencies such as Fia.job.com , pia.job.com  through which the accused operated his scam.

The FIA, after keeping him under surveillance, arrested Tariq from Tibba Sher Khan village in district Bahawalpur late on Thursday. They recovered a laptop, a computer, mobile phone sets, SIM cards and other relevant articles from his possession.

A case has been registered against the accused at FIA NR3C Police station in Lahore, (FIR No6/2012) under sections 109, and 420 of Pakistan Penal Code and sections 36/37 of the Electronic Transactions Act 2002.

Further investigations are underway , FIA officials stated.