KARACHI, Dec 21: Federal Investigation Agency, with the assistance of the American customs authorities, have detected a ‘cyber-fraud’, of $3million, and arrested some members of the gang involved.

FIA officials said the US customs authorities followed the trail of e-mails and credit cards and then informed in November the FIA Karachi, through the US consulate, of the cyber-cum-credit card fraud, which was being committed for more than two years.

According to these officials, the FIA started surveillance of the suspects, in coordination with the US customs officials in Karachi and abroad. After collecting the information regarding activities of the international cyber-crime syndicate, a raid was conducted — headed by Agha Wasif Abbas, Deputy Director of FIA Karachi — at the airport and the office of a computer firm “Fast Track”, situated on Sharea Faisal.

The FIA arrested Khurram Iftikhar, owner of the firm, along with his accomplices, while seizing the consignment that was purchased through illegally-acquired information about credit cards. The goods were booked from Dubai via Emirates airline.

The modus operandi of the suspects was that they used to put their products on different auction sites on the internet to collect the credit card information, which they misused to place orders for computers and accessories in the US.

They also collected information from local 5-star hotels and other shopping outlets in the city. The suspects used Singapore and Dubai as transit routes for the merchandize to mislead the law enforcement agencies.

The FIA, with the cooperation of the US authorities, were further investigating into the matter, the officials added.