FIA Complaint Online: Filing Through the Portal Step by Step

Filing online is free, takes about twenty minutes and can be done from anywhere including overseas. The mechanics are simple. What separates a complaint that gets picked up from one that does not is entirely in how you write it and what you attach, and that is what this guide focuses on.

Do this before you open the form

Assemble everything first, because a half-completed form and a scramble for screenshots produces a weak filing.

• Evidence folder. Screenshots showing profile URLs or handles, with visible dates and times.
• Identifiers list. Every account handle, phone number, email address, group name and payment account involved.
• Timeline. Bullet points, in date order, of what happened.
• Financial records if money was lost - transaction IDs, amounts, dates, receiving account or wallet.
• Your CNIC and contact details.

Take your screenshots before you report the account to the platform. A successful takedown deletes the content, and with it your evidence. Capture first, report second.

Completing the form

1. Reach the portal from the official domain. Start at fia.gov.pk and follow the cybercrime complaint link rather than clicking a link sent to you.
2. Select the right category. Financial fraud, harassment, defamation, hacking, impersonation and offences involving minors are handled differently. Choosing the closest category routes it to the right desk.
3. Enter your particulars accurately. Name exactly as on CNIC, CNIC number, a phone number you actually answer, and a working email. Investigators drop cases they cannot contact you about.
4. Write the narrative. Plain, chronological, factual. Dates and times. Names and handles. What was said or done. What you lost. No adjectives, no speculation about motive.
5. List the identifiers explicitly in the narrative as well as in the attachments, so they are searchable in the text.
6. Attach the evidence. Name the files usefully - 01-profile-url.png, 02-threat-message-14-Aug.png - so the sequence is obvious.
7. State what you want. Investigation, content takedown, tracing an account, recovery of funds. Complaints that ask for something specific are easier to action.
8. Submit and record the number. Screenshot the confirmation screen.

How to write the narrative

Compare these two descriptions of the same incident.

Weak: "Someone made a fake account of me and is harassing me and my family. Please take action urgently, my life is being destroyed."

Strong: "On 14 August 2026 at approximately 9:30 pm an Instagram account with the handle @example_fake was created using my photographs taken from my own account @example_real. Between 14 and 18 August the account sent messages to at least six of my contacts, named in the attached list, claiming to be me and requesting money. Screenshots at annexures 1 to 6 show the profile URL, the messages and the dates. I have not authorised any person to use my photographs or identity."

The second version gives an investigator handles to search, dates to bound the enquiry, a described offence and indexed evidence. The first gives them nothing to act on. Emotion is understandable but it does not advance the file; specifics do.

After submission

• Keep the tracking number and the confirmation screenshot.
• Answer your phone. Investigators call from numbers you will not recognise.
• Be ready to attend and record a statement, and to produce the original device.
• Follow up in writing if nothing happens, quoting the tracking number, rather than filing a fresh duplicate complaint.
• Do not file the same complaint repeatedly through multiple channels; it fragments the file rather than accelerating it.

If a matter is urgent and live - an active blackmail threat, for instance - do not rely on the online form alone. Call 1991 and consider attending in person. See online blackmail and sextortion for the immediate steps.

Filing from outside Pakistan

The online portal is the practical route for overseas Pakistanis, and it does not require you to be in the country. Points to bear in mind:

• Give a Pakistani contact number if you have one, or a reachable international number plus email.
• Time-zone gaps slow follow-up considerably, so an authorised representative in Pakistan helps.
• A lawyer can file and pursue the complaint on your behalf under a power of attorney. Where the power of attorney is executed abroad it needs proper attestation - see our guide to registering a power of attorney in Pakistan.

Choosing the right complaint category

The category you select routes the complaint to a particular desk, and a misrouted complaint loses time. Match your facts to the closest description.

If your facts span two categories, choose the more serious one and describe the rest in the narrative. Do not file two separate complaints for the same episode.

When the FIA is the wrong forum entirely

A meaningful share of complaints are rejected not because the evidence is weak but because the matter is a civil dispute rather than an offence. The FIA is not a debt collection service.

Typically not cybercrime:

• A customer or business partner owes you money and is not paying, even if the agreement was made over WhatsApp.
• A supplier delivered goods that were poor quality or late.
• A dispute about the terms of an online sale where both parties are identifiable and the disagreement is contractual.
• A family or property disagreement conducted partly over messages.

The distinguishing feature of fraud is deception at the outset - the counterparty never intended to perform and used a false identity or false representations to obtain the money. A genuine trader who failed to pay is a civil matter, and the remedy is a recovery suit or, where a cheque was involved, a 489-F case.

Filing a civil dispute as a criminal complaint wastes months and can rebound. If you are unsure which side of the line your facts fall, take a short opinion before filing rather than after a rejection.

Frequently asked questions