ISLAMABAD : The biggest online fraud gang has been arrested by The National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA) from Faisalabad from a house owned by a former Chairman of FESCO, Faisalabad Electric Supply Company , Malik Tehseen Awan.
The National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA) raided a house in Shahkot area of Faisalabad on July 8 and arrested 149 people, including 71 foreigners.
149 people, including 48 Chinese nationals, were arrested in Faisalabad. According to the NCCIA, the arrested persons include 48 Chinese nationals, 8 Nigerian nationals, 4 Filipino nationals, 2 Sri Lankan nationals, 6 Bangladeshi nationals, 2 Myanmar nationals and one Zimbabwean national. The arrested persons include 18 women.
The accused were produced in a court in Faisalabad and the court has also issued an order for their five-day physical remand, while 62 Pakistani accused have been transferred to the district jail on judicial remand till July 23.
Malik Tahseen Awan’s arrest could not be made. Seven FIRs have been registered and the cases involve provisions of the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act and the Pakistan Penal Code. The details of the fraud recorded in the FIRs are similar to each other. The operatives of this network contacted people through WhatsApp and were added to a Telegram channel where thousands of people were already present.
FIR was registered by a victim Noman at the local police station. His father Erfan shared the details as , “My son was added to a Telegram channel called ‘Upwork Pakistan’ and was asked to deposit Rs 300 on a simple pay account and in return he received Rs 1200 for investing Rs 300. Later my son was asked to invest Rs 4000 after which Rs 12000 including profit was returned. After that, Rs 256,000 was given to this group in installments and he has not received that money back till date.”
An FIR has also been filed by Muhammad Sajid, who has been defrauded of more than Rs 3.1 million. He was briefed on online work and investment by a woman named Alice Garcia, who introduced herself as a representative of a company called Upwork Pakistan.
Another FIR complainant, Muhammad Bilal, is a resident of Chiniot. He was contacted on a foreign WhatsApp number by a woman named Ayesha Rehman, who offered him a job as a sales manager for the company.
‘After that, I was added to the Telegram channel from WhatsApp and by November 2024, I had transferred Rs 102,000 to her as an online investment, he shared.
According to other FIRs, a citizen named Muhammad Kazim received Rs 730,000 from the group, a citizen named Abdul Wasi received Rs 739,000, a citizen named Muhammad Waseem received Rs 646,000 and a resident of Toba Tek Singh received Rs 499,000 from Ayesha Munir.
Malik Tahseen Awan has also been active in local politics and his photos on his Facebook account show him with several political figures. He has been included in the Provisional National Identification List (PNIL), after which he will not be able to travel abroad. In all the FIRs, the statements attributed to the accused have been written that Malik Tahseen Awan was getting all the illegal activities done by him.
