FIA grapples with plethora of online fraud cases

Scammers pose as officials of various organisations

LAHORE:

The number of complaints of fraud received by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) Cybercrime Wing in Punjab has crossed the 100 mark.

The fraudsters posing to be officials, of the police, banks, Federal Bureau of Revenue (FBR) or other institutions creating fake accounts, apps and call centres using illegally issued SIMs to deprive the victims of millions of rupees. The FIA is failing to match the pace of action against the suspects with the number of cases being reported daily.

Official statistics show that on average 100 to 150 cases of fraud by people claiming to represent various departments are currently being reported across the province, especially Lahore, Faisalabad, Multan, Gujranwala, Sheikhupura, Rawalpindi and Gujrat.

One complainant stated that he had received a phone call from a man claiming to be a police officer who alleged that his nephew had been caught drinking along with a girl.

In another incident, then caller claimed that a relative of the victim had been involved in an accident in an intoxicated condition and was in a hospital. The callers demanded immediate transfer of money through mobile banking to avoid the registration of a case.

The complainants claimed that they had been deprived of hundreds of thousands of rupees by the scammers.

According to a businessman, he had received a call about his containers carrying imported goods stuck at a dry port due to the prevailing economic conditions in the country.

The caller knew the details of the containers and demanded an initial payment of up to Rs100,000 within an hour to arrange the release of the goods.

Immediately after a fraud, the fake applications, accounts and mobile phone numbers are shut and the fraudsters install a new SIM to start a fresh series of frauds.

An FIA spokesman said an awareness campaign had also been launched to avoid online fraud.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 13^th, 2023.