Rangers, FIA cybercrime wing apprehend hacker

The Sindh Rangers in a joint operation with the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) in Orangi Town have arrested a suspect involved in hacking bank accounts, and credit and debit cards.

According to a statement issued by the Rangers on Sunday, the paramilitary force’s technical team and FIA cybercrime wing arrested the suspect, Muhammad Asif Mughal, and also seized his computer.

During the initial course of interrogation, the arrested man reportedly revealed that he was an IT expert and had expertise in hacking bank accounts and credit cards.

He told the interrogators that he had been buying bank accounts data of people from various call centres for Rs2,000 to Rs5,000 and used to call customers from his own call centre to tell them their account had been hacked.

He would then coax people into generating an OTP (one-time password), which he used to withdraw money from their accounts. According to the Rangers, the suspect had been committing such crimes since 2012 and had caused loss of millions of rupees to the public by hacking various bank accounts and credit cards.

Mughal also visited Malaysia several times between 2014 and 2016. He was handed over to the FIA cybercrime wing for the initiation of legal proceedings.

Robbers held

Police on Sunday claimed to have arrested two members of a gang allegedly involved in robbing citizens coming from the airport. A spokesperson for the Karachi police said the suspects used a white car to escape after they had mugged citizens coming from the airport, and the vehicle was also seized from their possession by the District Central police.

The suspects were identified as Kamran, alias Aman, and Jasim. Police said they were habitual criminals and they also confessed their involvement in dozens of such robberies along with their other accomplices.

The arrests were made with the help of CCTV footage of various such robberies committed by the suspects, police said, adding that one of the brothers of Kamran was killed in an encounter with police and his other brother was already in prison.

Jasim’s brother was also incarcerated in the Adiala jail, police explained, adding that raids were being conducted to arrest other members of the gang. Arms seized from the suspects have been sent to a forensic lab and further investigations were under way.