Foreign nationals use Pakistan visit visas to run scam call centers, senate told

Foreign nationals are allegedly using Pakistan as a base for scam call centers after entering the country on visit visas.

Islamabad: Foreign nationals are allegedly using Pakistan as a base for scam call centers after entering the country on visit visas. Authorities have arrested hundreds of people in raids in Islamabad and uncovered a company linked to an investment scam that affected about 3,500 people, officials told the Senate Standing Committee on Information Technology and Telecommunication.

Officials from the National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency told the committee that citizens of China, Vietnam, Indonesia and Myanmar were among foreign nationals involved in call centre-related scams operating in Pakistan. They said many of these people entered Pakistan on visit visas or visa-on-arrival facilities and then started working in call centers.

The officials said more than 300 people were arrested from Gulberg Greens in Islamabad and another 273 were arrested from I 10/3 during action against such call centers. They said many of those involved had entered Pakistan on visit visas and some were also found with expired visas.

According to the briefing, the foreign operators generally targeted people in other countries rather than Pakistani citizens. Officials said scams were carried out against people from countries including India and China while Pakistani youth were used to work inside the call centers.

The officials said foreign operators used Telegram groups to recruit Pakistani youth, offering salaries of around Rs40,000 to Rs50,000. The Pakistani workers appeared to operate the systems, while the main control of the operations remained with the foreign organisers, according to the NCCIA briefing.

The committee was also told about the Goldbox case. Officials said the company was registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan, with 90 percent ownership linked to Chinese nationals and 10 percent held by a Pakistani partner from Swabi who had studied Chinese at the National University of Modern Languages.

Officials said the company offered people a scheme in which an investment of Rs100,000 was shown as generating Rs10,000 every month. Around 3,500 people were affected and more than Rs11 crore was collected, according to the briefing. The NCCIA recovered Rs5.82 crore in the case.

The authorities also told the committee that three Chinese nationals were recently arrested while using Telegram to recruit Pakistani youth. The officials said the recruits were called for interviews and offered relatively low salaries.

The issue also raised questions about Pakistan’s visa system. An FIA official told the committee that Chinese authorities had identified some of the people involved as culprits in their own country, yet questions remained over how such individuals obtained Pakistani visas.

The FIA said the visa-issuing system needed to be stricter, and stronger checks were also needed through the corporate registration and banking systems. Officials said it was difficult to physically track large numbers of foreign visitors after they entered Pakistan, making stronger screening at the visa stage particularly important.

The FIA official also described the difficulties authorities faced in deciding who should be stopped at airports. He told the committee that in one case around 40 to 48 people travelled from Pakistan on valid Umrah visas and were later found on a migrant boat linked to the Greece tragedy. The official said such cases create difficult questions for authorities when they try to prevent illegal travel while also dealing with genuine passengers.

The committee chairperson said the issue of foreign nationals allegedly using Pakistan as a base for cybercrime would be taken up with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Members said the matter required government-to-government coordination because criminal activity carried out from Pakistan could damage the country’s international image.

The committee’s discussion highlighted concerns over the use of visit visas for activities not covered by those visas, the use of local workers by foreign operators, the registration of companies linked to alleged scams and the need for stronger checks by immigration, corporate regulators and banks.