KARACHI: Pakistani officials on Saturday arrested two men wanted for cyber crimes by Interpol and the FBI for allegedly defrauding several companies and individuals of over $50 million.

Mir Mazhar Jabbar, a senior official with Federal Investigation Agency, told AFP his team had arrested Noor Aziz and Farhan Arshad in Karachi.

“They were on the most wanted list of the FBI and we have... arrested them,” Mr Jabbar said. The FIA personnel also arrested three others who are all part of the same extended family, he added.

The FBI on its website said that ‘Arshad and Uddin’ were wanted for their alleged involvement in an international communication scheme and hacking venture that defrauded individuals, telecom companies and government entities in the United States and elsewhere in the world.

They cost their targets more than 50 million dollars.

Arshad and Uddin gained access to business telephones systems and used the systems to place long distance telephone calls to premium rate numbers as part of a scheme known as international revenue share fraud, according to the US agency.

“Arshad and Uddin are part of an international criminal ring that the FBI believes extends into Pakistan, Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Switzerland, Spain, Singapore, Italy, Malaysia and other locations,” the FBI said in late 2013.

The FBI – which had the pair on their “cyber most wanted” list – had also offered a reward of up to $50,000 each for information that led to their arrest.

Published in Dawn, February 15th, 2015

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