Scam factories

The recent raid by the National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency, in coordination with law enforcement, on an illegal call centre in Faisalabad should jolt authorities into recognising the alarming scale of digital financial fraud proliferating across the country. The arrest of 149 individuals – including foreign nationals – from a call centre in Faisalabad reportedly involved in Ponzi schemes is a damning indictment of the regulatory vacuum that allows such operations to flourish in plain sight.

These so-called call centres have increasingly become hotbeds of cyber fraud, promising lucrative returns to unsuspecting victims while siphoning off millions into untraceable digital black holes. In most cases, the trail ends with ghost companies and empty bank accounts, leaving behind little to no trace.

Pakistan's digital and financial literacy remains critically low, making the public easy prey for well-oiled Ponzi schemes disguised under the veneer of investment opportunities. Call centres operating such scams are blatantly destabilising public trust in financial systems and destroying lives.

The scale of the problem demands a systemic response, not just episodic crackdowns. These call centres must be treated not as isolated scams but as organised crime networks. Their dismantling requires far more than one-off police raids. Through real-time coordination between cybercrime divisions and banking watchdogs there must be stricter vetting of business regulations and financial audits. Moreover, whistleblower protections must be strengthened to encourage internal reporting.

Unless authorities move swiftly to expose and prosecute the criminals behind these scams — rather than just the low-level operators — such call centres will continue to multiply. The longer they are allowed to operate under the radar, the deeper they will embed themselves in Pakistan's already fragile economic fabric.