PESHAWAR, Jan 28: The crime cell of the Federal Investigation Agency has unearthed the network of a fake bank operating through internet and arrested four people for allegedly cheating more than 35,000 people, said an official on Wednesday.

FIA Inspector Shahid Ilyas said they had got information about some forgers operating an online bank in the city by the name of Prime Bank UK. An FIA team raided the offices of the fake bank in Al Haaj Plaza at Sikandarpura on Tuesday and arrested ringleader Mumtaz Shahid and three of his accomplices, Falak Naz, Mohammad Ilyas and Zaiwar Noor.

The accused used to sell scratch gold cards for Rs3,000 each with the promise that the amount would be transferred into their internet bank account when they hit their website through the scratch card number, the FIA official said.

However, before opening their account, it was compulsory for every client to sell three gold cards and from every card the client had a commission of Rs1,000, he added.

"Initially, the accused paid some amount to their clients, but since August they did not pay a single penny to anyone out of more than 35,000 clients," the inspector said.

The websites the accused used were www.bcgold.sa.com, www.primegoldbank.com and www.pb.pakistan.com. They claimed their head office was in England. During interrogation, the accused revealed that they had links with Major (retd) Akram and Tahir Awan, residents of Punjab, who, according to them, ran the same racket in Dubai.