The NCCIA Karachi raid call centre case has led to the arrest of 273 people after the cyber crime agency searched a call centre on Shahrah-e-Faisal on Tuesday night. The agency also seized 339 laptops, 152 mobile phones and four CPUs from the premises. When the raid took place, more than 250 employees, some of them young, were working there.
What investigators found
Officials said the centre had been operating for several years. It was raided in 2025, when a case was registered against its owners and management, but the staff were released at that time. Afterwards, the management reportedly restarted work and took on minors.
Reports say around 42 staff did not have a national identity card, although they were proficient in English. The suspects allegedly used those language skills to approach American citizens.
How the alleged fraud worked
Officials allege the suspects pitched credit-card offers and cheap loans, mostly to retired people. Through these offers they obtained details of victims' cards and bank accounts, which were then used for fraud. Each employee was reportedly given a daily target of 15 to 20 people, and the operation is alleged to have run for more than a year, with a scam said to be worth billions of dollars.
The investigation also points to a wider money network, which the NCCIA says involved merchants, hawala and hundi operators and black money. Hawala and hundi are informal ways of moving money outside the formal banking system.
Court appearance and what follows
This time, the agency said, employees were arrested as well, unlike earlier raids that mainly targeted owners and managers. It also said some staff released in the earlier raid had moved on to other fraudulent call centres.
A court heard the suspects by video link. The NCCIA investigation officer told the court that the suspects had defrauded foreign nationals. The court granted bail to suspects under 18 and to women, while other accused were remanded to jail, meaning they stay in custody while the case proceeds.
A lawyer said more than 70 underage suspects and over 80 women were among those arrested; these figures came from the lawyer. Relatives of the suspects also protested on Shahrah-e-Faisal.
The Home Department has labelled the premises a sub-jail, and many police personnel are now posted at the site. Officials said the agency is weighing proceedings against mothers and fathers under Section 109 where children are linked to crime.
Aasan alfaaz mein
NCCIA ne Karachi ke Shahrah-e-Faisal par ek call centre par chapa mara aur 273 afraad ko giraftar kiya. Wahan se 339 laptops, 152 mobile phones aur chaar CPUs bhi le liye gaye. Alzam hai ke yeh call centre American shehriyon se credit card aur loan ke bahane fraud karta tha. Aam logon ke liye matlab yeh hai ke naukri ka offer dene wale idaray ki tasdeeq karein aur bachon ki nigrani karein.
