KARACHI: The Federal Investigation Agency's (FIA) cyber crime wing of Karachi on Saturday arrested a high profile cyber criminal wanted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and counted amongst the top 10 most wanted cyber criminals by the US.

According to the FBI website, Noor Aziz Uddin — who has a bounty of $50,000 on his capture — allegedly compromised computer systems and defrauded victims of amounts in excess of $50 million in November 2008 and April 2012.

The international scheme involved members of a criminal organisation that extended into Pakistan, Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Switzerland, Spain, Singapore, Italy, and Malaysia, among other nations.

On June 29, 2012, US authorities issued a federal arrest warrant for Noor Aziz Uddin in the United States District Court, District of New Jersey, Newark, New Jersey, after he was indicted for conspiracy to commit wire fraud; conspiracy to gain unauthorised access to computers and identity theft.

Noor Aziz Uddin allegedly ran an illegal international telecommunications scheme that defrauded unsuspecting individuals, companies, and government entities, to include large telecom companies, in both the United States and abroad.

Along with accomplice Farhan Arshad, Noor also gained unauthorised access to business telephone systems and used them to initiate long-distance telephone calls to premium rate numbers through a scheme known as international revenue share fraud.

The conspiracy caused the owners of the compromised telephone systems to be billed for services they did not order.