News Source: Pakistan Today
Writer: Ihsan Qadir
LAHORE: The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has planned to set up three cyber-crime circles in different cities of Punjab.
According to the reliable sources, the circles of FIA’s Cyber Crime Wing will be set up in Gujranwala, Faisalabad and Multan where experts will be deputed to counter such crimes. The circle offices will have state of the art facilities to address complaints.
“Cybercrime is a major challenge for the FIA and the complaints are increasing with every passing day. The nature of electronic crimes is different but they are occurring. The most victims are women and good thing is that, they are lodging complaints at relevant forums,” the sources said.
They further added that the FIA is receiving complaints from women belonging to every stratum of the society but lady doctors working in hospitals are the worst victims. The lady doctors who work in night shifts in hospitals bear the most brunt of their colleagues and are mostly harassed.
The sources added that about 100 to 150 lady doctors have approached the FIA to lodge complaints against harassment.
In 2017, police arrested accused Abdul Wahab for blackmailing and harassing over 200 lady doctors through social networking websites and mobile chatting applications.
According to Young Doctors Association (YDA) leader Dr Salman Kami, the accused Wahab used to blackmail lady doctors through their social networking websites.
Cyber security expert Muhammad Arshad said the accused created fake accounts on social networking sites like Facebook and then harass and blackmail girls online. In most cases, the accused harassed girls first and then extorted money from them after befriending them on Facebook.
He advised that in order to prevent cyber-crimes, the users should secure smartphones and social networking accounts with strong passwords and check apps permissions. The users should not accept friend request from any unknown persons.
Arshad requested girls to contact customer service wings of social networking websites in case of harassment and file complaints with them.
