ISLAMABAD: Pakistani authorities have detained 212 suspects, including Chinese nationals, in raids on three illegal call centers in the federal capital of Islamabad, officials said on Tuesday, as investigators probe an international cyber-fraud network.

The National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA) carried out the raids in Islamabad’s E-11 and G-10 sectors over the past 24 hours. The operation targeted call centers where suspects allegedly impersonated Google representatives and defrauded local and foreign citizens through “tasking fraud” and “love-dating schemes,” according to a statement issued by 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.

“They simply sit here and target people from different countries,” Islamabad NCCIA Deputy Director Asif Nawaz told Arab News, adding that the agency seized 306 mobile phones, 383 computers and CPUs, and 299 monitors and laptops from the suspects who included Chinese and Pakistani men and women.

“An FIR has been registered. After this, we will obtain remand and conduct the investigation... Furthermore, we have sent the seized digital equipment for forensic analysis, and that report will come.”

The official did not say how many Chinese nationals were among the detainees.

The seized equipment had been transferred to the NCCIA laboratory for forensic analysis, while investigators were examining the network connections that were found to be linked to India and Brazil, according to the agency.

Nawaz said the investigation was currently at an initial stage.

It comes weeks after authorities detained more than 250 foreign nationals in a raid on an illegal call center in Islamabad’s Gulberg Greens area.

Nawaz said Tuesday’s operation was not connected to the earlier case, although investigators found similarities in the two scams.

“It wasn’t linked to the previous case. This is a new FIR for us. But the scam is the same and because there are a lot of these Chinese-operated scam call centers running here, the nature of the crime is the same,” he said.

Investigators found evidence of illegal activity during the raids, with computer systems still running when NCCIA officers entered the call centers, according to the official.

“We have found evidence, and their systems were powered on. We caught them with live systems running,” Nawaz said.

NCCIA Director General Syed Ali Nasir Rizvi said elements involved in illegal call centers and cyber fraud deserve no leniency.

“Protecting citizens’ data and financial assets is the top priority of the NCCIA,” he said in a statement. “Indiscriminate actions will continue under a zero-tolerance policy against cybercrime.”