ISLAMABAD  -  The Cybercrime Wing of the Fed­eral Investigation Agency (FIA) on Friday arrested as many nine sus­pects besides registering a case against 19 accused in a crackdown against online loan-giving applica­tions (apps) on charges of black­mailing citizens. The agency ini­tiated action against loan-giving mobile apps after an unem­ployed Rawalpindi-based cit­izen allegedly committed sui­cide following his failure to repay the interest as well as loan he had borrowed through an app.

An FIA spokesperson, in a statement said, the cyber­crime wing conducted raids at the offices of a financial service in the area of Rawal­pindi’s Saidpur Road during which nine suspects were held. He said that an FIR has been registered against 19 accused for operating the company.

According to details, FIA offi­cials sealed a number of offices of the company. 

The FIA spokesperson said that the suspects were giv­en targets to make 100 to 150 threatening calls a day to cit­izens, their friends and fami­lies for the recovery of interest and loans. It added that differ­ent sections had been estab­lished at the raided office to make threatening calls while a separate department was be­ing run to deal with ‘torture calls’. “Every department had been given separate tasks in relation to making calls,” said the spokesperson.

The FIA said the depart­ments were called “D-0, D-1, D-2, DS-1, DS-2, and DS-3” and the suspects would collect per­sonal information of citizens through the loan apps. “After­wards, they used it to harass and threaten people.”

The FIA added that a large number of documents, com­puters, laptops and mobile SIM cards were taken into posses­sion during the raid.

It added that an investigation has been started while raids were being conducted to arrest the culprits.

A day earlier, FIA had raided two offices of a loan app located in Sector G-8 of Islamabad. The agency sealed its offices and confiscated laptops and other material from there.

The agency has also contacted the Securities & Exchange Com­mission of Pakistan to get de­tails about the app companies.