TOBA TEK SINGH: The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on Sunday registered a case against a gang for depriving a man of Rs800,000 through mobile phone fraud.

In his complaint, Malik Mahmood Azam, a resident of Chak 282-JB, Gojra, said the fraudsters contacted him on his mobile phone introducing themselves as representatives of a TV game show.

Azam said he was told that he had won Rs1 million, five tola gold and a motorcycle in the game show and needed to send Rs700 on a cell number through mobile money transfer.

He said that he did as he was told to get the ‘prize’ and then through a series of phone calls the fraudsters kept extracting different amounts from him.

Azam finally reported the matter to FIA. The agency investigators came to know during the probe that the complainant had so far transferred Rs800,000 to the fraudsters.

He told the agency that he had to sell his property to make payments to the fraudsters who were identified through bank accounts and phone numbers as Muhammad Ramzan, Nasreen Bibi, Kahloon Bibi, Ali Akbar, Muhammad Asghar, Muhammad Ismail and Muhammad Aslam and some others.

The FIA has registered a case against the suspects under sections 14,16 and 17 of PECA, 2016 and 109,419,471,468 and 420 of the PPC and sections 3/4 of the AMLA of 210.

Raids were being conducted to arrest them, an official claimed.

Published in Dawn, February 1st, 2021