ISLAMABAD: The National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA) has called for stricter regulations governing company registration and bank account verification, warning that loopholes in the existing system are being exploited by illegal call centres, online betting operators and international fraud networks to launder money and defraud victims.
Addressing a press conference on Saturday,NCCIAIslamabad/Rawalpindi Additional Director Muhammad Shoaib Khan said fake companies were being registered through weak verification procedures, after which bank accounts opened in their names were linked to loan applications, betting and gaming portals to receive and transfer illicit funds.
He said the issue involved merchant accounts provided by banks and the accounts into which money was deposited. Companies were sometimes registered despite weaknesses in verification procedures, standard operating procedures (SOPs) and the Know Your Customer (KYC) process.
‘After a company has been registered, the bank opens an account in its name.
The operators then take that company’s bank account and integrate it with their online betting or gaming portal,’ he said, adding that the NCCIA was preparing recommendations for relevant institutions to strengthen their verification systems.
Mr Khan said the agency had already taken up the matter with senior officials at the policy level. Whenever investigators identified a loophole during investigations or interrogations, theybroughtittothe authorities’attention so that corrective measures could be taken.
He said the NCCIA wanted to address cases in which one-person companies and similar entities were registered and their bank accounts subsequently used for illegal activities.
The NCCIA warned educated youth againstjoiningillegalcallcentres,saying an FIR could jeopardise their futurejob prospects and character certificates.
Mr Khan urged job seekers to verify companies’ legal status and parents to ensure their children were not working at illegal call centres involved in fraud.
He said young people, including university students, were attracted to such jobs because the salaries were higher than average. However, they often ended up becoming part of an organisedfraud operation.
‘If your son or daughter is arrested during such an operation, the FIR becomes part of their record. Tomorrow, when they need a character certificate or apply for a government job, that record can affect them,’ he said.
He warned that an FIR could remain on an individual’s record, potentially affecting future police clearance certificates and job prospects.
Asked how young people could distinguish between legal and illegal call centres, Mr Khan said they should first use common sense and carefully examine the nature of the work being offered.
‘If an entire floor is generating sexual content, you know that is illegal. That is a matter of common sense,’ he said.
He advised job seekers to ask which organisation a company was registered with, who had approved its operations and whether it had received approval from the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP).
He said the agency had raided two call centres in the IslamabadRawalpindi zone over the past three days, one in Rawalpindi and the other in Islamabad.
During the Rawalpindi raid, 11 people, including 10 women, were arrested, while 143 people, including 43 women, were arrested in the Islamabad raid.
He said both centres were involved in transnational fraud schemes targeting Asian countries, particularly those in South Asia.
The Rawalpindi call centre impersonated Bangladeshi police to threaten borrowers and extort money under the pretextofloanrecovery.
‘They would tell a person that he was on their radar or on a hit list,’ he said.
At the Islamabad centre, the operators worked in different stages. Initially, they trapped people and persuaded them to install an application on their mobile phones.
Once installed, the application gave the operators access to the victims’ photo galleries. After obtaining access to their pictures and selfies, they would issue small loans, while their actual objective was to collect the victims’ personal information, including mobile numbers and other credentials.
They also gathered information about close family members whom borrowers had nominated as guarantors or next of kin.
After collecting all the information, the operators passed the casesto another team. Once they had extracted as much money as possible from a victim, they would empty the person’s account and close the case.