ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s national cybercrime agency has arrested 61 individuals in a raid on an illegal call center in the garrison city of Rawalpindi where suspects allegedly intimidated foreign nationals into paying money as part of an illegal loan recovery scheme, the agency said on Monday.

The development comes amid an intensifying crackdown on illegal call centers in the twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi, during which authorities have rounded up hundreds of suspects, including foreign nationals, over the past few months.

The National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA) said it raided a call center in Commercial Market of Rawalpindi's Satellite Town after a tip-off and caught the suspects “red-handed,” seizing 71 mobile phones and 155 laptops that have been sent for forensic analysis.

"Preliminary investigations reveal that the suspects posed as recovery agents to extort money from foreign nationals through threats, actions that not only caused severe mental distress to the victims but also tarnished the country's reputation," the agency said in a statement.

A case has been registered against the arrestees and further investigation and technical analysis of seized gadgets are underway.

NCCIA Director-General Ali Nasir Rizvi said such illegal call centers posed a significant threat to the country's image and public trust, maintaining that the agency was committed to taking action against elements involved in cyber fraud.

"Indiscriminate and vigorous actions against the ones involved in illegal call centers and cyber fraud must continue," he said.

Last week, the agency said it had detained 212 suspects, including Chinese nationals, in raids on three illegal call centers in the federal capital of Islamabad over alleged cyber fraud linked to India and Brazil.

The suspects allegedly impersonated Google representatives and defrauded local and foreign citizens through “tasking fraud” and “love-dating schemes,” according to the agency.

A tasking fraud is a fake online job where victims complete simple tasks for promised commissions but are eventually tricked into depositing their own money to unlock or withdraw earnings, while a love-dating scheme, commonly called a romance scam or romance fraud, is a fraudulent operation where a criminal builds a fake romantic connection online to manipulate and steal money from a victim.

Authorities also detained more than 250 foreign nationals in a raid on an illegal call center in Islamabad’s Gulberg Greens area in Aug.

Cybercrime complaints have remained high in recent years as Pakistan’s growing use of digital financial services and social media has exposed users to fraud, harassment, blackmail and other forms of online abuse. Government figures presented to parliament in May showed 157,465 cybercrime complaints were filed last year.