People being scammed by tricksters using different tools while claiming to be part of various telecommunication companies is not new in this part of the world.
A recent video being circulated on social media shows a police officer addressing a press conference after arresting a gang of such fraudsters, explaining their modus operandi.
The police officer explains that the suspects go to a specific area in “white pick up vans where they announce on speakers that they are distributing free sims”.
When people arrive to collect them, the scammers get their details first by biometric scans and a copy of their Computerised National Identity Cards (CNIC). Following the scan, they demand that the customers pay for the balance already available in the sim, to which a lot of customers turn their back to. Following this, the registered sims are then returned to the alleged franchise workers identified as Irfan and Rashid who would then give the sims to ‘middleman’ Dr Naseer.
The police officer further said that “so far Irfan has given 15 and Rashid has given three sims to the doctor which were then given to the main suspect Adeeb who used it for various scams”.
“Adeeb used to send text messages from these numbers to various customers regarding Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) reward, Mobicash and so on,” he said, adding that these were used to hack over 25 Facebook accounts as well.
