LAHORE, May 15: The FIA’s Cyber Crime Unit arrested nine people allegedly involved in credit card fraud worth millions of rupees on Monday. The arrested accused were Rana Muhammad Ashraf, Zahid Hafeez, Imran Sarfraz, Haseebur Rehman, Atif Majid, Shahid Iqbal, Rizwan Ahmed, Asad Asif and Asim Anwar.

FIA Director Mohammad Manzoor and Crime Circle Deputy Director Ajmal Khan told the media that Rana Ashraf utilised three counterfeit visa cards of different African banks to make purchases worth Rs3.8 million in Lahore and Gujranwala. The agency recovered two cards and Rs600,000 cash from his possession, the officers said.

Zahid and Imran fraudulently obtained the cards of three employees of a textile unit in Faisalabad and used Rs400,000, they said and added that half of the amount had been recovered from the accused.

Similarly, Haseebur Rehman and Atif Majid obtained five visa cards and used Rs2.5 million from the balance. The agency officials recovered Rs1 million from them.

The remaining accused obtained cards of different banks in Lahore on the fake ID cards and utilised the complete balance. Some 18 cards were recovered from them.