Online fraud, account takeovers, investment scams and blackmail have become among the most common complaints brought to lawyers in Pakistan. They are also the matters where the first few hours decide almost everything.

Evidence disappears. Accounts are deleted. Money moves through mule accounts and then out. What you do before you make the complaint often matters more than the complaint itself.

Preserve the evidence — first, and properly

Before you confront anyone, block anyone, or delete anything:

  • Screenshot everything, showing the full screen including usernames, profile URLs and timestamps — not cropped images of message text
  • Save the profile links and any account identifiers
  • Keep transaction records — bank statements, transfer confirmations, wallet addresses, reference numbers, the exact times
  • Preserve the device where the communications happened, and do not factory reset it
  • Do not delete the conversation, however much you want to

Screenshots that show only text, with no visible account identity or timestamp, are of limited evidential value. This is the most common practical failure we see, and it is entirely avoidable.

Where to complain

Cybercrime in Pakistan falls under the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act 2016 (PECA), and complaints go to the FIA Cyber Crime Wing, which has a circle in Karachi. Complaints can be lodged online or in person.

A complaint should be a clear chronological account — what happened, when, on which platform, with which accounts, and what was lost — with the evidence annexed and indexed rather than sent as a mass of unexplained images.

For financial fraud, notify your bank immediately and in writing, separately from the FIA complaint. Speed can occasionally allow a transfer to be stopped or an account frozen, and it creates a record of prompt reporting that matters later.

What PECA covers

Broadly, the conduct people most often come to us about:

  • Unauthorised access to accounts, systems and data
  • Electronic fraud and dishonest inducement to transfer funds
  • Identity theft and impersonation
  • Cyberstalking and harassment
  • Non-consensual sharing of intimate images, and blackmail threatening it
  • Defamatory material published electronically
  • Offences involving forged electronic documents

Different provisions carry different procedures and penalties, and — importantly — not every unpleasant online experience is an offence. We will tell you plainly which category yours falls into.

If you are being blackmailed

This deserves separate treatment, because the instinct is almost always wrong.

Do not pay. Payment does not end it. It establishes that you will pay, and demands resume, usually escalating.

Do not negotiate alone, and do not delete the account or the conversation — that is your evidence.

Report it. The law provides for this and the FIA has a dedicated function for it. Complaints of this kind, particularly involving intimate images, are handled through channels intended to protect the complainant's identity, and you can ask about that at the outset.

If the person being blackmailed is a woman or a minor, additional protections and reporting routes apply. Do not let embarrassment delay the complaint — delay is the blackmailer's only real advantage.

Recovering money: be realistic

Where funds have been transferred to a fraudster, recovery is possible but far from certain, and it depends almost entirely on speed.

Money moved through a chain of accounts and withdrawn, or converted to cryptocurrency, is very difficult to recover. Where the recipient account is identified quickly and still holds funds, there is a meaningful prospect.

Alongside the criminal complaint, a civil suit for recovery against an identified recipient may be worth bringing, and interim relief to freeze identified accounts can be sought. See recovering money owed in Pakistan.

Nobody honest will promise to recover your money. Be extremely wary of "recovery agents" who approach victims of fraud offering to retrieve funds for an upfront fee — that is itself a common second fraud on the same victim.

Common scams we see

  • Investment and trading schemes, often promoted through social media, with early small payouts to build confidence
  • Fake job and visa offers requiring a processing fee — see our guidance on visa refusals
  • Impersonation of banks or regulators, requesting OTPs or card details
  • Marketplace fraud on buying and selling platforms
  • Romance and long-confidence scams
  • Business email compromise, where invoice payment details are altered and a legitimate payment is diverted

That last one is increasingly common against Pakistani businesses trading internationally and is worth guarding against with a verification procedure for any change of bank details.

If a complaint has been made against you

PECA is also used improperly — to pressure someone in a personal or commercial dispute, or in retaliation. If a complaint has been registered against you, take advice immediately. Bail considerations arise, and where proceedings amount to an abuse of process they can be challenged. See our guidance on getting an FIR registered and the first 48 hours after an arrest.

How the firm can help

We advise on preserving and presenting evidence, prepare and pursue complaints to the FIA Cyber Crime Wing, and follow them through investigation and prosecution. Where funds can be traced, we pursue civil recovery and freezing relief alongside the criminal complaint.

We equally defend those against whom a PECA complaint has been made, including where the process is being misused.

These matters are time-critical. If you have just been defrauded or are being blackmailed, telephone the chambers rather than waiting on a form — (021) 3263 7006.