AFTER I was through with my intermediate examinations a few months ago, I had a bit of free time and decided to utilise it to improve my communication skills, gain some work experience, and, indeed, to make some money. The `ideal` target was some call centre. However, most call centres operated late in the night to match worl(ing hours in Western countries, especially the United States. I continued to look for some daytime opportunity, and soon came across an advertisement posted on a social media platform. I applied and was called for an interview which seemed normal.

I was selected surprisingly easily, and asl(ed to join the next day against a monthly salary of more than Rs50,000 a considerable amount for someone with the profile I had.

The call centre was located in one of the major commercial areas in Islamabad. When I went there the next day, I was shocked to discover what was actually happeningthere. It was basically a Chinese-operated loan-recovery call centre which, from what I witnessed, was involved in debatable practices. The employees had a systematic way of targeting people in India. They appeared to have access to personaland family contacts of their targets, and would use those contacts to pressure and harass the victims into paying loan instalments.

If the victims refused, the employees would threaten to send personal images or other material to their relatives and family members. I witnessed these practices myself, and left the call centre on my very first day. What disturbed me the most was that such activities were taking place in the heart of the federal capital. I wondered how foreign nationals are able to operate such callcentres, seemingly without fear, right in the capital.

There is no doubt that legitimate call centres can and do contribute to employment and foreign exchange earnings.However, economic benefits cannot justify allowing criminal or exploitative operations to continue. A serious cracl(down is needed against call centres involved in fraud, extortion and other forms of cybercrime.

Ahmed Majeed Islamabad