LAHORE: The National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA) on Friday arrested two men for allegedly defrauding US citizens through an illegal call centre.

NCCIA Lahore Zone Additional Director Atif Ameer said the action was taken after the agency detected suspicious activities at a call centre on Main Boulevard, Gulberg, through open-source intelligence and obtained a search warrant from the court.

Mr Ameer said the arrested suspects were identified as call centre owner Irshad Ahmed Butt and his employee, Aurangzeb. Preliminary investigations revealed that the suspects contacted US citizens while posing as representatives of insurance companies and obtained their credit and debit card details under the pretext of an insurance campaign. The information was used for illegal financial transactions, he claimed.

He said an examination of the recovered laptops and mobile phones had revealed online calling software and data linked to financial fraud.

Published in Dawn, October 17th, 2026