ISLAMABAD: The National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA) has tightened the noose around elements involved in online gambling, operating betting applications and running illegal call centres.
Additional Director NCCIA, Muhammad Shoaib Khan, while addressing a press conference on Saturday, said that the crackdown on illegal call centres and gambling applications had been intensified in the twin cities and other parts of the country.
“Several prominent business personalities have also been found involved in gambling applications,” he alleged, adding that these applications initially offered users profits to attract them, while their operators primarily assessed users’ financial capacity.
Khan said that if foreign nationals were found involved in illegal call centres, the NCCIA would approach their respective embassies to seek access to them. Individuals involved in illegal activities had also been found operating from residential areas in Rawalpindi, he said, adding that anyone found involved in anti-state activities would face strict legal action.
He further said that an illegal call centre in Islamabad had been operating for the past one-and-a-half months, while another facility in Bahria Town, Rawalpindi, had been functional for around 15 to 20 days.
During raids on these call centres, 11 people were arrested from the facility in Rawalpindi, while 143 suspects were arrested during the raid on the call centre located in Islamabad.
He said the suspects were targeting people in different Asian countries through fraudulent schemes.
Khan said the Islamabad call centre was spread over four floors. Initially, the suspects persuaded people to download applications onto their mobile phones and subsequently gained access to their phone galleries, he said.
The NCCIA additional director said the suspects obtained sensitive personal data, converted it into obscene material and blackmailed victims into paying money to avoid public humiliation.
They also defrauded people under the pretext of providing loans, he added.
He said individuals working at such call centres were offered high salaries and hired on contracts. He urged parents to keep an eye on their children and monitor the call centres where they were employed, warning that involvement in illegal activities could adversely affect their character certificates.
He said the NCCIA had arrested several individuals on charges of harassment and blackmail.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2026