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How to report an investment scam in Pakistan

If you have lost money to an online investment platform, this is what to do and in what order. Evidence first, then the complaint. Both are more achievable than they look.

Published 24 July 2026 Reading time 6 min Category: Reporting and recovery

Step 1: Capture the evidence, immediately

Platform access can be revoked without warning, and websites go offline overnight. Everything you can see right now may be unavailable tomorrow. Do this step first, in full, before you contact support or argue with anyone.

• Screenshots of the platformYour account balance, transaction and order history, the plan or package you bought, any pending withdrawal, and the homepage with its claims. Include the URL and date visibly in each capture.
• Every transaction hash (TXID)From your wallet or exchange history. Each crypto transfer has a permanent blockchain record with a TXID and destination address. Copy both for every deposit. This is the most valuable evidence you have and it cannot be deleted by the platform.
• Bank and exchange recordsStatements showing purchases and transfers, P2P trade records, receipts and reference numbers — whatever route your money took.
• All communicationsSupport chats, emails, WhatsApp and Telegram messages, the fee demand itself, and the group or channel where you were recruited. Export whole conversations rather than isolated messages.
• The recruitment trailWho introduced you, the referral link used, the video or post that convinced you, and any promotional material. Screenshot it before it is deleted.
• Platform identifiersAll domains and URLs, the app package name if you installed one, any wallet addresses published, and any company names or licence numbers claimed.

Store all of it in one folder, backed up to cloud storage as well as your phone, and write a simple timeline in a text file: dates, amounts, what you were told and by whom. A clear chronology substantially improves how a complaint is handled.

Step 2: File with the NCCIA

Cybercrime in Pakistan, including online investment fraud, is handled by the National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA). The agency was established in 2024 and became fully operational in 2025, taking over from the FIA's Cyber Crime Wing, which was merged into it along with its existing cases. It operates under the Ministry of Interior and holds jurisdiction over offences under the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act 2016.

Include in the complaint: your full name, CNIC and contact number; the platform's name, domain and any app details; a chronological account of what happened; total amount lost with dates; every transaction hash and destination address; and your attached evidence. Ask for and keep the complaint tracking number. You will need it for every follow-up.

Two practical notes. Write factually and chronologically rather than emotionally — a clear, evidenced complaint moves faster than a distressed one, however justified the distress. And government agencies do not register complaints through unofficial WhatsApp numbers; if a "helpline" contacts you on WhatsApp offering to expedite your case for a payment, that is a further scam.

Step 3: Notify anyone else who can act

If your funds passed through a bank, an exchange or a payment service, tell them in writing as soon as possible. Exchanges can sometimes freeze funds that arrive at accounts under their control, and speed genuinely matters here — hours can decide it.

If you bought crypto through a P2P trade or a local agent, report that route too. Where an investment product was marketed to the public without authorisation, the SECP is the relevant regulator and can be informed separately.

If the operator appears to be based abroad, the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center accepts international reports and contributes to cross-border cases. Reports of the same platform from multiple jurisdictions are what surface it as an organised operation.

What to expect, honestly

Recovery of crypto sent to an unknown wallet is difficult and often impossible. Realistic outcomes depend on the operator being identified and funds being seized at an exchange while still traceable. Enforcement in Pakistan has produced significant results in this area — NCCIA has arrested suspects in large-scale fake investment operations, including a 2025 raid in Faisalabad that saw 149 people arrested over a transnational fraud operation involving Ponzi schemes and investment scams — but individual restitution remains uncommon and slow.

Report regardless, and report even a small loss. Investigations are assembled from complaint volume: the National Assembly was told that NCCIA logged 77,023 complaints in the first five months of 2026, of which 58,286 were verified, leading to 8,048 inquiries, 457 registered cases and 520 arrests. Every one of those cases began as individual complaints that looked, to the people filing them, like nothing much on their own.

The two things worth doing today

Warn the people you brought in. If you shared a referral link, message that group now. It is uncomfortable for a few minutes and it is the single most effective thing available to you — it stops the chain at the point where you are standing in it.

Tell someone you trust. Financial fraud is unusually isolating, and the shame is a large part of what keeps people paying the next fee and the next one. It is worth saying plainly: these schemes are professionally built, socially validated by people you have reason to trust, and specifically engineered to defeat ordinary caution. Being caught by one is not a verdict on your judgement. Talking about it out loud is often what ends the loss.

If the loss has left you in serious distress, please talk to someone about that too — a family member, a friend, or a doctor. Money problems are recoverable in ways that feel impossible while you are inside them.

Questions people ask