ISLAMABAD: The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on Friday claimed to have arrested nine suspects and booked 19 others for allegedly blackmailing citizens through loan-giving mobile applications (apps).
In a statement issued today, an FIA spokesperson said the cybercrime cell, along with the financial services, conducted raids in several areas of Rawalpindi during which nine suspects were held and first information reports were registered against 19.
“Inspector Badar Munir sealed a number of offices inside a plaza located on the Saidu Sharif road,” it said in a statement.
Earlier yesterday, the FIA team raided two offices of the loan app in G-8 sector, sealed the offices and confiscated laptops and other material.
The FIA said the suspects were given targets to make 100 to 150 calls a day to citizens, their friends and families on a daily basis. It added that in the raided offices, a separate department was being run to make what it described as “torture calls”.
The FIA said the departments were called “D-0, D-1, D-2, DS-1, DS-2, and DS-3” and the suspects would collect personal information of citizens through the loan apps. “Afterwards, they used it to harass people.”
The FIA added that a significant amount of documents, computers, laptops and mobile SIM cards were taken into possession during the raid.
The arrested suspects were being interrogated, while an investigation was underway to nab others, it added.
Man dies by suicide
The investigation into predatory loan apps was launched after a man died by suicide in Rawalpindi.
The deceased man’s wife, who wished not to be named, told Dawn.com yesterday that her husband had taken two loans from separate mobile apps, one of which had seen its principal plus interest amass to Rs0.7m.
The wife said he had initially taken a loan of Rs13,000 from EasyLoan app, which quickly soared to Rs100,000 a few days later due to interest. To pay back that loan, he took another loan from Bharosa app, which also rose to Rs700,000 in a few weeks, she added.
Her husband, she said, had lost his job six months ago, leaving the family unable to pay for their children’s school fees and rent.
According to her, the officials operating the app “used to call daily to threaten and scare” the family of police action against them if the loan repayment was delayed, and her husband died by suicide after growing tired of the threats.
Following the incident, the deceased man’s brother, Muzammil Husain, filed a complaint with the Race Course police station under Section 174 (police to inquire to report in suicide, etc) of the Code of Criminal Procedure.
Later, an FIA team, headed by Deputy Director Cyber Crime Tahir Jamil and Additional Director Abdul Rauf visited the man’s family and registered a case after recording their statements, a Dawn report said.
