NCCIA busts embassy impersonation gang, arrests 12 members in Punjab

LAHORE: The National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA) says it has broken up an alleged international fraud network that impersonated foreign embassy officials to target visa and immigration applicants, arresting 12 suspects in Punjab.

According to a monitored public feed citing a Tuesday press conference in Lahore, NCCIA Punjab Director Muhammad Ali Wasim said the group had been operating for several years and had cheated people out of millions of rupees by posing as representatives of foreign diplomatic missions. The alleged impersonation extended to embassies and officials linked to Italy, Germany, Sweden, Oman and Saudi Arabia.

Wasim said the arrests were made during a raid on a fake call centre in Bahria Town Phase IV, Rawalpindi, in an operation carried out by the NCCIA’s Gujranwala Circle. He described it as one of the agency’s major actions against organised cross-border cybercrime.

The agency said the suspects created fake Google business listings, bogus websites and forged documents to appear genuine. Victims searching online for embassy contact details were allegedly directed to phone numbers controlled by the group. Officials also said the suspects used call-forwarding and caller ID spoofing to make embassy numbers appear to connect to their own lines.

Once in contact with victims, the group allegedly used phone calls and WhatsApp messages to demand payments for visa appointments, immigration processing, document verification and other supposed consular services. The NCCIA also said some members tried to strengthen the deception by appearing on video calls in Singapore Police uniforms and claiming to be law enforcement officers.

Wasim said the gang had also recruited people fluent in Arabic, including the Saudi dialect, along with speakers of other foreign languages, to help impersonate embassy staff and government representatives. He said the network had been active since 2019 and later expanded its reach to Oman and Saudi Arabia.

During the raid, investigators seized 21 mobile phones, a car, a Singapore Police uniform, forged appointment letters, phishing emails, fake Google business profiles, PTCL records, multiple Gmail accounts and other digital material, which have been sent for forensic examination.

The NCCIA said it is now tracing financial transactions, identifying more victims and pursuing suspects still at large, while also examining possible international links. Wasim said the agency would continue acting against cybercrime groups exploiting the names of government institutions and foreign missions.

In a separate development mentioned in the same feed, the NCCIA also said it had arrested two alleged key members of another international cyber fraud network linked to phishing infrastructure used to steal banking credentials and other sensitive data. The agency said that case involved Tycoon2FA, a phishing platform with more than 96,000 fake applications, accounts and malicious links. The feed said raids in Islamabad, Faisalabad and Sialkot led to the seizure of computers, servers and storage devices, and that legal steps were underway to confiscate property allegedly purchased with fraud proceeds.

This report is based on a monitored public feed and is attributed to Dawn Pakistan. Source: Dawn Pakistan - https://www.dawn.com/news/2017367/nccia-busts-embassy-impersonation-gang-arrests-12-members-in-punjab