The Federal Research Agency (FIA) warned on Monday that criminals circulate on the false first information reports using the agency’s name to blackmail people, according to a press release.
“The FIA has received information that the criminal elements are harassing people by sending FIR false and manufactured to WhatsApp on behalf of” the agency, the press release, available with Dawn.comdeclared. “Citizens are named in FIR false and terrified.”
“These elements try to present themselves as FIA officials using fictional and deceitful names,” added the agency. “In such messages, attempts are being made to blackmail citizens by making serious accusations such as” cybernetic crimes and terrorism. “
The FIA declared that it does not send messages of this nature to people through WhatsApp and urged the public to present complaints about suspicious messages before the National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA), which is the “authorized agency to investigate the cyber crime.”
“Be careful with false messages and never share your personal and financial information,” said the FIA.
A copy of FIR FIR was also shared with Dawn.comRegistered under the 11H sections (fundraising), 11n (punishment under sections 11h to 11k) and 11q *(loss) of the Anti-terrorism law, 1997, read with section 3 (crime of money laundering) of the Money Wash Law, 2010 and sections 109 (Puniment of the Mount (Punishment of the Criminal Conspiracy) of the Criminal Code of Pakistan.
On August 8, the agency warned citizens against the “false emails and WhatsApp messages” that are sent to their name.
“The FIA has received reports that some unknown people are harassing the public by sending false emails and WhatsApp messages in the name of the DG FIA,” said a statement issued by the agency’s spokesman, Abdul Ghafffar.
“In these false messages, the public is terrifying by the name and position of DG FIA,” said the statement, added that the scammers put a false seal of “top secret” in these messages so that they look authentic.
On August 5, the Digital Rights Foundation issued an alert warning against an ongoing scam with the aim of compromising WhatsApp accounts through false calls requesting a code.
