PTA Fails to Stop SIM Fraud Despite Complaints Continue To Stack

Islamabad: The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority(PTA) has failed to stop scammers using mobile phones to rob people.

Despite all the complaints, PTA has failed to stop the issuance of fake SIMs of mobile phones.  As per the official documents, the use of fake SIMs in financial fraud and illegal activities is increasing day by day. It is quite surprising to know that original CNICs are used for the issuance of fake SIMs. But no action has been taken from the authorities by blocking the SIM or any other action against the fraudsters.

Moreover, people are using fake silicon thumbs to issue the fake SIMs.  According to the FIA Cyber Crimes document, 88,516 complaints of fake SIMs are launched in the year 2022. Investigation shows that 24,853 crimes related to fake SIMs have been reported this year.

The official document shows that last year in 2021, 100,772 complaints were reported to the Cyber Crime Office regarding fake SIMs. The cases were mostly of financial benefits and rewards.

For example, people receive messages from unknown numbers highlighting the Urdu text “Benazir Income Support Programme se apko Rs 35,000 Mubarak hun, maloomat k liye 0323-xxxxxxx is number par call Karen”.

One of the person called the number and asked for further assistance, a recorded version of an operator asking him to reach a shop of Easypaisa or Mobi-cash between 8 am to 8 pm to claim your amount.

The FIA Cyber Crime has registered approx 449 cases of financial fraud. The use of silicon thumbs have become a trouble for PTA. PTA is constantly working to check and block fake SIMs. 79,559 fake thumbs have been recovered in the last three years. Whereas, in 2022 almost 6,106 silicon thumbs have been recovered in the year 2022. Moreover, 15,211 fake SIMs and 15 biometric devices have been recovered by FIA and PTA teams.

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