A judicial magistrate on Thursday remanded four men held for their alleged involvement in financial fraud activities through spoofed calls in the custody of the National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA) for interrogation.
Muhammad Shah Bukhari, Uzair Shehzad, Rohit Kumar and Yougesh were arrested during a raid on a call centre in DHA Phase II Extension on March 10. On Thursday, the investigation officer, Ameer Ali Khoso, produced the held suspects before the judicial magistrate (East) on completion of their one-day physical remand and requested that they be remanded until March 24 for further interrogation.
The magistrate, however, remanded the suspects in the NCCIA custody for one more day with a direction to the investigation officer (IO) to produce them today. According to the FIR, a team of the NCCIA raided a place in DHA Phase II Extension to arrest an absconding accused. During the inspection of the premises, the team found suspects Muhammad Shah, Uzair Shehzad, Rohit Kumar and Yougesh involved in running a call centre.
The analysis of the digital devices available there revealed the suspects’ involvement in financial fraud activites, it said. The NCCIA said that spoofing software used in the commission of such crimes was also found along with data pertaining to financial institutions and banking information of foreign nationals.
During on-spot interrogation, it said the suspects stated that all data related to the foreign nationals’ bank accounts had been provided by the owner of the call centre and his partners — Syed Abu Bakar and Muhammad Shah Bukhari.
“During the initial technical examination of the seized devices, it was established that the suspects were involved in making fraudulent calls through spoofing dialers, impersonating themselves as representatives of foreign banks to carry out unauthorized and illegal transfers of funds, as well as extracting personal and sensitive information for their wrongful gain without the knowledge or consent of foreign cardholders,” read the FIR.
“The agents obtained Social Security Numbers, cell phone numbers, dates of birth, and mother’s maiden names by posing as bank representatives. After securing confidential details pertaining to bank accounts and credit cards. Furthermore, these details were then sent to the Merchants for unauthorized financial transactions.”
