FIA unearths Karachi gang involved in online car fraud

KARACHI: Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on Sunday arrested a member of a gang using online marketplace to rob citizens.

The agency acted upon a complaint filed on August 25 against online fraud involving cars, said FIA Cybercrime Circle Additional Director Faizullah Korejo.

The complainant said in the FIR that some people had been posing as representatives of car manufacturers to book vehicles and had received payments in their bank accounts.

Qureshi identified the key suspect as Imam, saying that five more people had been working with him. The complainant also revealed their phone and bank account numbers. “I have been a victim of these people and transferred over Rs10 million to their bank account,” he lamented.

According to Qureshi’s statement to the police, he had been looking to buy a car through a website when some people contacted him and introduced themselves as Azhar, Imran and Kashif.

The complainant said the men convinced him that they represented car manufacturers and asked him to transfer funds to their bank accounts for purchasing vehicles.

The FIA officer said Qureshi had transferred Rs10.55 million in different bank accounts of the suspects, including Rs1 million in a single account, which was debit blocked by the inquiry officer.

Korejo said that a notice was issued to the account holder, namely Sher Muhammad Joyo, who came in to the FIA office to answer their questions.

Joyo told them he was a respectable advocate practising at the city courts along with Advocate Ghulam Qasim Joyo. The lawyer said his client Azam Rehman Butt had transferred the said amount to his account as fee because he was on trial in a case registered at the Cybercrime Circle.

With the two advocates’ help, the FIA conducted a raid at a place near the city courts and arrested Butt. When he was questioned, the suspect admitted that the money was transferred through online fraud committed with the help of other people.

Korejo said the investigation had established that Butt and others had committed a punishable offence, adding that a case had been registered against him and the others.