KARACHI: Up to 350 suspected scam call centers are operating in Pakistan’s largest city Karachi, a cybercrime official said on Friday, stressing that authorities encounter difficulties in tracing the culprits as they mostly carry out such fraudulent activities from homes and moving vehicles.

A day earlier, Pakistan’s National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA) raided a call center in Karachi and arrested 273 persons. In a post on social media, the NCCIA said the call center was allegedly used to defraud foreign nationals through fake financial schemes, credit card offers and impersonation of representatives of financial institutions. The agency had taken legal action against the same company twice before, NCCIA Additional Director Shahzad Akbar said.

“Our survey identified 300 to 350 operating [scam] call centers in Karachi,” Akbar told Arab News. “We have not taken legal action against all of them yet, but we will proceed against them one by one.”

The official said people who were involved in such scams did not require large offices or permanent premises to operate from, making them harder to track.

“Essentially, all they need is an IT service through which they can extract credit card information,” he said. “Such activities can even be carried out from a small house or a small residential neighborhood. Four or five individuals can get together and run such an operation.”

Akbar said some groups were also using several cars to change locations while carrying out fraudulent activities.

The call center that NCCIA raided in Karachi on Nov. 4 is named “Voxtron Solutions.” Investigators seized 339 laptops, 152 mobile phones and four computers, according to the agency.

Akbar said the company had faced two earlier criminal cases, but investigators had booked only its owners and left the employees with technical skills to resume operations. Cases were registered against the owners of the call center.

“The problem is that when employees are not booked, they remain free, and they are the ones who possess the specific skills required to carry out these activities,” he said.

He said employees and relatives can restart fraudulent operations from the same premises under different company names, while differences between registered business identities and operating names made it difficult for investigators to establish connections.

Speaking about Voxtron Solutions’ activities, Akbar said operators obtained credit card information and passed it to merchants linked to companies registered in the United States, where unauthorized transactions could be processed. A merchant had been identified in the latest case, he said, and investigators were examining financial transactions to establish the extent of the alleged network.

According to NCCIA’s preliminary findings, workers at the call center allegedly impersonated representatives of foreign banks and debt verification services to obtain personal and financial information from overseas customers.

Akbar said the raid followed information from a local source rather than a tip from a foreign government or international law enforcement agency.

The arrests prompted protests by relatives of detained workers, who said some employees, including young people, were unaware of any illegal activities at the company.

Akbar said the company’s recruitment advertisement required applicants to be at least 18, but alleged that younger workers had been hired to reduce labor costs.

At a hearing on Nov. 5, Judicial Magistrate East Gulraiz Memon granted bail to 98 women and two juvenile boys against surety bonds of Rs5,000 ($18) each, with age verification required for juvenile suspects.

The court also remanded nine principal suspects, including the company’s owners, into NCCIA custody for two days. The remaining suspects were sent to prison on judicial remand.

The investigating officer also submitted a notification from the Sindh Home Department temporarily designating the call center premises as a sub-jail, citing security concerns and the difficulty of transporting so many detainees.

Akbar said NCCIA would continue examining financial transactions and digital evidence to identify those responsible and pursue prosecution.