Digital frauds cause long probes

With the widespread use of modern technology, hundreds of people are forced to visit the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) cyber wing every day after being defrauded of their lifetime earnings within minutes. Even after several months, the FIA is unable to arrest the fraudsters, who have free hand to make phone calls whenever and wherever they want and deprive citizens of their money.

According to details, fraudsters in Lahore alone are draining hundreds of thousands of rupees from the accounts of citizens by calling citizens through online banking and microfinance banking apps and pretending to offer valuable items including cars, washing machines and watches in a lottery.

Suspected fraudsters are creating apps on the mobile numbers of various mobile companies or posing as institutions including the State Bank and robbing people on a daily basis. FIA Lahore is receiving 40 to 50 complaints daily, but in the Cyber Wing action is seldom taken on complaints, with official on a long waiting list.

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Citizens have stated that investigation officers chastised them for giving callers the pin code of the accounts and the accused have yet to be arrested even after ten months. FIA Cyber Wing Lahore has over 16,700 pending complaints of fraud committed through social media, banking apps and online shopping. Ten investigators have been rotated on each inquiry, but the accused remain at large.

In a case where Rs3 million was stolen through phone fraud, investigators of the FIA cyber wing said that it was a police case. Conversely, when victims go to the police, they say that the case is being investigated by the FIA.

The victims are growing tired of going between the police station and FIA offices and not getting justice.

The response given by authorities is that there is no record or database of the suspected fraudsters’ mobile phone numbers. It is said that a letter has been written to the companies and action will be taken once a response is received.

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Meanwhile, the FIA Cyber Wing has not taken action against any mobile company for issuing SIMs without biometrics. If this action is taken, people can avoid being defrauded.

When approaching an FIA spokesperson in this regard, he replied that legal proceedings are ongoing and dozens of fraudsters have also been caught. Fraud can be avoided if people are just a little careful and don't give out their account details, he added.

There have been thousands of reports of online fraud, cyber stalking, hate speech, and theft of government data coming out of the province. And data obtained by The Express Tribune from the country’s apex investigation agency, the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), highlight the rising trend of cybercrime in the province.

The most reported cases of cybercrime in Punjab, during the past 5 years, are of financial and electronic fraud, with a rate of 15 to 19 cases per day. A breakdown of the number of such incidents from 2018 to August of 2023 shows that a total of 31,930 incidents were reported in five years: 657 in 2018, 2,005 in 2019, 7,055 in 2020, 9,818 in 2021, 9,492 in 2022, and 10,000 reported until August of 2023. The second highest reported cases in the same time period were that of theft of public and private data, with 19,749 total incidents up until August.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 15^th, 2023.