Federal Investigation Agency’s (FIA) cyber-crime branch, in its investigation has revealed that personal data and information of Pakistanis is being sold and misused on various online platforms.
According to an investigation carried out by FIA cyber-crime wing, it has been revealed that sensitive personal information and details including date of birth, family tree details, fingerprints, and other personal information is being sold on various online platforms.
Faizullah Korejo – additional director for the Sindh and Balochistan region for FIA’s cyber-crime wing, has stated that the people involved in this business have access to people’s call detail records (CDR).
Furthermore, Hassam, one of the suspects who are now in FIA’s custody has revealed that he met an individual named Haris on WhatsApp and provided him with fingerprints obtained from biometric machines as he had access to them for he provided services to cellphone franchises for SIM card registration.
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Haris then used these fingerprints to flush out other details of the victims and then conned them into revealing their bank accounts details while presenting himself as a representative from State Bank of Pakistan. Scammers then ‘drained’ these accounts in a systematic way.
An elderly lady in Karachi was deprived of around Rs 2 million in a single day in this manner, said FIA officials.
According to FIA investigation, almost all of these fake calls originated form Gujranwala, Hafizabad and Rahimyar Khan in Punjab.
FIA has apprehended 16 cyber criminals from various districts of Punjab, whereas further investigation is underway to find out the masterminds behind these scams and frauds.
