Suspect held for identity theft

The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on Sunday claimed to have arrested a suspect allegedly involved in identity theft to register smuggled mobile phones.

According to FIA Karachi Cybercrime Additional Director Faizullah Korejo, the arrest was made during raids conducted at an office of a travel agency and a mobile phone shop in Defence Housing Authority on the complaint of the Federal Board of Revenue and the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority.

The FIA also sealed both the places were the raids were carried out. The officer claimed that the suspect was involved in the registration of illegal or smuggled mobile phones with the help of data of international passengers.

Korejo maintained that the PTA had provided a list of 1,328 people whose travel data had been stolen by such gangs who had registered smuggled mobile phones in the passengers’ names.

He added that the FIA also found data of a large number of passengers in a loptop and other equipment seized from the travel agency’s office. So far, the stolen data of 3,000 passengers had been recovered, he said.

Korejo explained that one of the arrested suspects had been identified as Ali Raza, a nephew of key suspect Abdul Wahid who was the owner of the travel agency. The officer added that efforts were under way for the arrests of Wahid and two more suspects, one of whom was Asif Majeed, the owner of the mobile phone shop.

Explaining the modus operandi of the suspects, the officer said the ENA Travel’s owner, Wahid, used to sell the data of passengers on their passports to the mobile shop owner who registered illegal phones through that data. The FIA also claimed to have confiscated over 100 mobile phones. Cases were registered against the suspects and further investigations are under way.