By Zarak Khan | 2025-08-06

Pakistani authorities last month busted a highly sophisticated transnational cybercrime syndicate operated by Chinese nationals, in what officials have described as one of the country’s most extensive crackdowns on foreign-led digital fraud schemes in recent years.

The operation in early July, conducted by the newly established National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA), culminated in the arrest of 149 individuals, including 71 foreign nationals, primarily Chinese, during a major raid on an illegal call center in Faisalabad.

"During the raid, a large call center was uncovered, which was involved in Ponzi schemes and online investment fraud," the NCCIA said in a statement.

"Through this fraudulent network, the public was being deceived, and vast sums of money were being illegally collected."

Those arrested included individuals from China, Nigeria, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Zimbabwe and Burma.

The majority were Pakistani citizens, who primarily served as ground operatives or local facilitators.

Cross-border fraud

The criminal network targeted thousands of victims in Pakistan and across several other South and East Asian countries, officials said.

It defrauded them primarily through online platforms, including WhatsApp, Telegram and various mobile applications, often under the guise of offering legitimate investment opportunities.

A police report submitted to a local court and reviewed by Focus revealed that the suspects operated multiple WhatsApp groups, where they assigned seemingly harmless investment "tasks," such as subscribing to YouTube or TikTok channels.

After gaining victims' trust, the schemers allegedly assigned the victims to Telegram for more-complex digital assignments, often requiring larger capital transfers and involving significant capital transfers and higher-risk engagements.

In late July, a court in Faisalabad granted a 14-day remand for all suspects to allow authorities to conduct further investigations.

Forensic analysis of seized electronic devices is ongoing and could reveal further international links, said officials.

"Initial findings point to a coordinated fraud ring led by several Chinese nationals who entered Pakistan on business visas," an NCCIA official in Faisalabad told Focus, requesting anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter involving Sino-Pakistani relations.

"They used Pakistan as a base to conduct cross-border scams, exploiting weak digital oversight and minimal coordination among law enforcement and financial regulators," he said.

The con artists initially lured the victims with promises of high returns on small investments, then manipulated them into depositing larger sums, often through crypto wallets or shell accounts, he said.

While the exact financial scale of the scam remains under investigation, authorities estimate that the suspects may have siphoned tens of millions of rupees through fraudulent financial transactions and shell companies, the official said.

Wider crime pattern

This latest raid adds to an increasingly troublesome pattern of criminal activity involving Chinese nationals operating within Pakistan.

Since 2018, Pakistani authorities have uncovered several Chinese-led criminal enterprises involved in human trafficking, cybercrime and large-scale fraud.

In Punjab, the country's most populous province, authorities three years ago uncovered the role of Chinese-run networks in notorious "fake marriage" scams, wherein con artists deceived impoverished Christian women with false promises of marriage and migration to China. Once in China, they endured forced prostitution or domestic servitude.

Pakistani police in previous operations found Chinese individuals to be involved in automated teller machine skimming and fraudulent job schemes, some of which misused the name and branding of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, a flagship initiative under Beijing's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

The BRI is a global Chinese project to facilitate the exports of poor countries' raw materials to China.

In 2022, a court in Karachi approved a request by the National Accountability Bureau, Pakistan's anticorruption agency, to freeze nine bank accounts connected to two Chinese companies and four individuals accused of defrauding the public of over 1.1 billion PKR (at today's rates, $3,877) through sham investment ventures.

Policy implications

Analysts specializing in organized crime have characterized the recent crackdown as indicative of a broader trend in which Chinese cybercriminal groups exploit jurisdictions with weaker regulatory and legal enforcement.

"These Chinese networks exploit both socioeconomic vulnerabilities and legal loopholes," Murtaza Hussain, an analyst at a Karachi-based risk management firm, told Focus.

"There is an urgent need for enhanced visa scrutiny for foreign nationals, particularly from China and other countries with a track record of organized fraud, along with regional law enforcement cooperation and robust public awareness campaigns targeting digital scams," he added.

While Pakistani authorities have not publicly attributed the Faisalabad syndicate’s activities to the Chinese state, cybersecurity specialists have warned that the tactics used bear similarities to those associated with advanced persistent threat (APT) groups, well-organized cyber units frequently linked to Chinese state interests.

"Even if these Chinese individuals acted independently, the platforms and social engineering tools they used mirror techniques commonly employed by Chinese APT groups," Muhammad Rehan, a cybersecurity analyst based in Islamabad, told Focus.

"Pakistan must seriously assess whether it is merely dealing with financially motivated cybercriminals or if these operations are part of a broader strategic posture involving foreign influence and surveillance," said Rehan.