KARACHI: A judicial magistrate on Wednesday sent four men to prison on judicial remand in a case pertaining to the theft of credit card data through “spoofed calls”.

The Cyber Crime Wing of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) had last week claimed to have arrested four suspects — Hassan Ahmed, Muhammad Mustafa, Abdul Samad and Irtaza Riaz — in a raid on a call centre in Gulistan-i-Johar for their alleged involvement in the theft of confidential financial data of foreign nationals through spoofed calls and impersonation.

On Wednesday, the investigating officer of the case Ashraf Jan produced the four suspects before Judicial Magistrate (East) Yusra Ashfaq and requested to extend their physical remand by nine more days for further interrogation.

However, the magistrate rejected the IO’s plea and remanded them in judiciary custody.

According to the FIR, the suspects were utilising the stolen data for their “wrongful gains” by disguising their true identity to defraud several foreign nationals.

It further added that the employees of the call centre in question were found performing the illegal action of “spoofed calls” through Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) software to different foreign nationals and obtaining their confidential credentials by alluring them that they were calling from the security department of Visa and Mastercard.

It said that the stolen credit cards were charged by merchants who) transferred the illegally obtained amounts or payments to the suspects’ bank accounts.

“All these payments are handled by owners or partners of IFBOTIX PVT Ltd namely Hassan Ahmed Khan and Bilal,” the FIR said.

The FIA also claimed to have seized the digital and electronic gadgets used in the commissioning of the crime.

A case was registered against the suspects and their other accomplices under Sections 3 (unauthorised access to information system or data, 4 (unauthorised copying or transmission of data), 6 (unauthorised access to critical infrastructure information system or data), 13 (electronic forgery), 14 (electronic forger), 16 (unauthorised use of identity information) and 26 (spoofing) of the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act, 2016 read with Section 419 (punishment for cheating by personation), 109 (abetment ) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code.

Three suspects — Bilal, Razi Ahmed and Shaharyar — have already secured pre-arrest bail.

Published in Dawn, October 3rd, 2024