FIA obtains remand of four men held for ‘duping people in guise of lottery prizes’

A judicial magistrate on Saturday remanded four suspects said to be involved in duping people in the guise of helping them redeem lottery prizes in the custody of the Federal Investigation Agency for questioning.

Investigating officer Ameer Ali Khoso produced the held suspects -- Zafar Rajput, Fayaz Raza Khan, Muhammad Imran and Muhammad Ashraf -- before Judicial Magistrate (East) Yusra Ashfaq and sought their 14-day physical remand for interrogation.

He informed the magistrate that the suspects were involved in a lottery scam and the theft of credit card data through spoofed calls.

The IO said that the suspects are required to be interrogated at length about their modus operandi and to arrest their accomplices. The magistrate handed over the suspects to the FIA on a five-day physical remand with a direction to produce them on January 30.

According to the FIR, FIA Cyber Crime Reporting Centre received a complaint from Abdul Samad, a resident of Pahlwan Goth, Gulistan-e-Jauhar, regarding an online fraud of Rs330,000. The inquiry revealed that a gang was involved in luring people by promising lottery prizes worth thousands of euros or dirhams and then extorted money through Western Union, MoneyGram, and IBFT transactions, it said.

The FIA stated that the group was involved in compromising the bank accounts of members of the public through various means, including obtaining OTPs from people in Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the UAE, and other countries. They fraudulently transferred payments via internet banking (IBFT) and operated a call center, commonly known as 'Sirka' in their community, in Ahsanabad, Karachi.

It said that four suspects -- Zafar Rajpur, Fayaz Raza Khan, Mohammad Imran and Mohammad Ashraf -- were apprehended during a raid on January 24, and digital devices were seized from their possession.

During initial interrogation and examination of seized mobile phones and other gadgets, it added, online applications with the name of "friends search for WhatsApp and Voiceover IP (VOIP) software" were found.

"Through application they search contacts list of foreigners/innocent persons on WhatsApp and then called the victims by asking them that they have won the lottery of thousands of euros/dollars/ dirhams and through the voice over software performing the illegal action of spoofed calls and obtaining their confidential credentials by alluring them for least interest rates and then they make spoofed calls by 'Voice Over Internet (VOIP)' Software and steal/obtained fraudulently their credit cards information and transferred all amount through fraudulent activity," the FIR read.

"On examination of their electronic/digital gadgets, it is found that they were involved in cheating/fraud by electronic means and spoofed calls also containing the sensitive data of victims along with forged documents.”