KARACHI: The Cyber Crime Reporting Circle (CCRC) of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has registered and FIR [First Information Report] against software house ABTACH Pvt Ltd on the allegations of credit card and fake certificates scams.
This is the second raid on a major software house conducted by the FIA in the last three months. In January, the FIA had raided and filed an FIR against Digitonic software house at Shahrah-e-Faisal.
ABTACH is owned by Mohammad Azneem Bilwani, who also owns the brokerage house Intermarket Securities.
According to the FIR, the software house made use of multiple phishing websites to cheat international clients and obtain illegal financial gains. These websites, including ‘theglobalcopyrightregistry.com’, trademarkfalcon.com, trademarkterminal.com, and trademarkregal.com, used dummy addresses of the USA to scam clients.
“The websites were used to create and register the logos and trademarks for foreign clients,” the FIA alleged, adding that the businesses associated with the websites were managed from the office of ABTACH in Clifton, Karachi.
The FIA also claimed to unearth WhatsApp chats showing clients demanding refunds and registering complaints of not being provided proper services. The chats also alleged that the company was overcharging its clients, said FIA.
Notices have been served to the company’s CEO Muhammad Azneem Bilwani, COO Salman Yousuf, President Saad Iqbal, CFO Saqib Zubair, CFO Muhammad Sabir, and IT Head Vinky Bashir. They were directed to appear in person before the inquiry officer at the FIA’s office in Karachi, but none have so far obliged.
