ISLAMABAD, Jan 1: Federal Investigation Agency (FIA)’s Cyber Crime Wing has unearthed an international gang which had been robbing people by collecting “processing fees” after declaring them winners of non-existent lotteries, jobs and businesses.

Director of the Wing Ammar Jaffery told Dawn on Thursday that three members of the gang - two Nigerians and a Pakistani - have been arrested under cyber crime laws.

After it arrested the two foreigners, the wing’s Rawalpindi Zone office received a call from a man pretending to be a police officer. “We traced the caller and arrested him. He turned out to be a member of the gang,” the FIA official said.

“We are in search of around 400 other Pakistanis involved in serious online financial offences,” he said.

Thousands of Pakistani citizens have reportedly fallen prey to cyber criminals’ offers of lottery, lucrative business partnerships and jobs communicated through e-mails sent from false addresses.

Mr Jaffery said the gang which his wing busted had been working in a very organised manner. It was unearthed when a gang member was arrested red-handed receiving a fat “processing fee” from the winner of a fake lottery. Euros 8,600 and $3,000 were recovered from the arrested man.

Investigations conducted by the FIA revealed that most of the cyber financial frauds originated in Africa or countries where cyber laws are ineffective.

Cyber gangs trap people by sending copy of a fake cheque through e-mail informing them that they had won a lottery and asking for $400 to $500 as fee to process the big win for them.

“They prey on the gullibility and greed of their victims by quoting wins of millions of dollars,” said the FIA official. “As one starts replying to their e-mails, the online criminals know they have hooked a prey.”

“They will ask about your bank account info, a complete bio data and act in ways that you start believing that the people you are interacting with are trustworthy and real. But in the end the activity turns out to be fake and unlawful,” Mr Jaffery said.

FIA’s Cyber Crime Wing shared the information about the gang it has just busted with the Serious Organised Crime Agency of Britain which sent a team to Pakistan.

“We are hopeful to arrest all those who are involved in this illegal organised crime. Our international liaison is going on with many other countries and we are getting very productive results,” said Mr Jaffery.