Pakistan’s National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency detained 212 people after raiding three illegal call centres in Islamabad. It’s one of the largest single day crackdowns on cyber fraud the capital has seen.
The raids hit premises in Sectors E-11 and G-10, part of a wider push against scam networks hiding behind IT and call centre businesses.
The detainees include both Pakistani and Chinese nationals, men and women. A case is registered and the investigation is ongoing. Police recovered 306 mobile phones, 383 computers, and 299 monitors and laptops. Forensic teams are now going through the devices to trace the network’s overseas links.
According to NCCIA, suspects ran Google related scams and romance scams, with leads pointing to operators or beneficiaries in India and Brazil. These schemes typically use spoofed caller IDs, fake tech support pages, and fabricated online relationships to get victims to hand over money or financial details.
This follows a run of NCCIA operations: 27 suspects arrested in Karachi last week for posing as bank representatives, and 114 foreign nationals detained in Islamabad in August over an alleged romance and sextortion ring.
The agency’s new director general ordered a nationwide crackdown on illegal call centres, financial fraud, gambling apps, and skimming.
Authorities expect more details soon on the scale of the fraud, key facilitators, and how money moved across borders. For now, this raid shows Pakistani law enforcement is turning up the pressure on cyber fraud that targets foreigners and hurts the country’s reputation abroad.
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