RAWALPINDI: The Federal Investigation Agency’s (FIA) Cyber Crime Wing arrested a medical student involved in harassing and extorting money from girls he befriended on Facebook, FIA Deputy Director Syed Shahid Hassan told media persons on Thursday.

The deputy director said a second year medical school in Nowshera Medical College was arrested after a student from a university in Islamabad whom he also harassed lodged a complaint against him with the FIA’s Cyber Crime Wing, saying that he was blackmailing her on Facebook.

He said the suspect had made fake accounts on Facebook through which he would harass and blackmail girls online. He said many people befriend girls on social media and ask for their pictures which they alter in order to blackmail them for money.

He said there are many cases where girls have also taken their lives when they are faced with such a situation because they cannot tell their parents that someone is blackmailing them.

He said FIA has been conducting raids on gangs involved in online betting on sports. He said money earned or lost via online betting is sent and received via illegal channels.

Two people were arrested by the FIA for their involvement in betting on sports online. He said they were betting via mobile phone applications and three laptops. Some 25 mobile phones were seized by the FIA during the raids, he said.

Published in Dawn, June 15th, 2018