A dead phone at the airport
A new detailed report has laid out what happened in one of the most brazen SIM swap fraud cases Pakistan has seen. According to a new investigation by The News, covered further in this detailed report, when MQM lawmaker Farhan Chishti landed at Islamabad airport on 12 January, his phone was dead. No calls, no messages, no signal — and no announcement of any network outage to explain it. After waiting for hours without the service coming back, he went to a service centre of his cellular company to report the problem. What he learned there shocked him: a duplicate SIM had been issued against his mobile number, automatically killing his genuine connection. The unauthorised SIM had been issued from a point of sale in Karachi’s Malir area.
By the time Chishti discovered what had happened, the person holding his number had already moved fast. The criminal had registered Chishti for online banking — a service he had never used — raised his withdrawal limit, and moved Rs1.5 million out of his account to accounts opened in the names of women across South Punjab and Sindh. It is one of the most brazen SIM swap fraud cases Pakistan has seen, and the method behind it should worry every mobile user.
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How the duplicate SIM was issued
The most disturbing part of the case is how the fraudsters got past Pakistan’s biometric verification. According to the investigation, the shop owner at the Khokhrapar (Malir) outlet said a man approached him claiming his mother needed a replacement SIM but was too weak to leave the car parked outside. He asked for the biometric thumbprint device to be brought to the car. The man holding the duplicate SIM was later traced to Nawabshah.
How the criminals captured Chishti’s actual fingerprint remains unexplained. Investigators believe organised fraudsters now harvest biometric data in bulk from leaked databases and from places where fingerprints are taken without proper safeguards, then feed the prints into software to defeat biometric checks. PTA Chairman Hafeezur Rehman has confirmed that fraudsters are finding ways to bypass the biometric safeguards meant to protect mobile subscribers.
Two MNAs and a businessman
Chishti was not the only victim. MNA Shaharyar Mahar lost Rs2 million in a separate SIM swap fraud incident. A third victim, Karachi businessman Sunny Kumar, lost Rs8.5 million after a duplicate SIM was issued against his number on 29 September 2025 at a retail outlet in Dhabeji, Thatta. Kumar and Chishti, investigators found, were customers of the same cellular company. Kumar’s bank later refunded his stolen money.
Chishti took his case to the National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA). The investigation into Kumar’s case uncovered something even more alarming: suspected help from inside the banking system itself. A branch service officer in Mardan had viewed Kumar’s account before the duplicate SIM was issued — and had accessed around 30 other accounts, after which funds were withdrawn or restrictions were applied. The suspected fraud connected with those accounts reached approximately Rs25 million. The officer first claimed he was helping a friend, then said he had handed customer details over under pressure.
PTA fines: Rs77.8 million per case
The cases went to the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority, and the regulator came down hard. PTA fined the cellular operator Rs77.8 million in Chishti’s case, and imposed the same Rs77.8 million fine in Kumar’s case — a total of Rs155.6 million. The company argued that a third party had deceived its retailer, but PTA rejected the defence. Under Regulation 4(4) of the Subscribers Regulations, the operator is solely answerable for any SIM sold through any channel, and the regulator found weak monitoring that the company’s later fixes could not undo.
The NCCIA’s wider crackdown has also produced results: the agency has seized 195 active SIMs and 81 ATM cards from fraudsters. But the Chishti and Mahar cases themselves did not go much further — both lawmakers were mainly focused on recovering their stolen funds, so the investigations behind them were not pushed to a conclusion.
How to protect yourself
The warning from this SIM swap fraud case applies to every mobile user in Pakistan. If your phone loses signal for hours and nobody around you is having the same problem — with no outage announced by your operator — do not assume it is a network glitch. Pakistan’s SIM swap fraud problem is growing precisely because victims treat the warning signs as ordinary network trouble, and every hour of delay gives the thief more time inside your bank accounts.
Call your mobile operator and your bank immediately, and ask both to freeze activity on your number and accounts. Enable every security feature your bank offers, keep your registered mobile number updated with your bank, and never share thumbprints, one-time passwords or banking details with anyone who asks at your door or over the phone. In Pakistan’s SIM swap fraud epidemic, the first hours decide whether your money survives.
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