It is time to stay alert and proactive since fraudsters have discovered a new trick of trapping innocent customers of Pakistan. Impostors have worked on a new trick of deceiving banking customers who use SMS banking service in Pakistan. Subsequently, these fraudsters are sending an SMS to the customers of different banks with the masking of a particular bank. In the SMS, they inform the customers that their SMS subscription has expired when it is not actually.
In addition, they ask the users to enter their account information in order to avail free SMS alerts about their bank accounts. In the past, the hackers used to send emails asking the customers to change their password. However, most of the users are now aware of that trick and as a result fraudsters have taken a new step altogether. This is even more dangerous and might actually tempt the users to share their account information to avail free SMS alert service.
One of the HBL customers received the following SMS:
Apparently, a customer would believe that the message is from HBL. However, it is not. The hackers have used the technique of masking the message with the name of HBL just to win the trust the customer. But in reality, they are actually fooling them in believing that the SMS is from a legitimate source.
Customers who fall prey to this scam will go to the website (mentioned in SMS) and enter all their vital information including mother’s name, CNIC, ATM card number etc. This information reaches to the hackers and later they misuse it and subsequently empty the bank accounts.
How can you save yourself from this scam?
As a customer, you need to keep the following points in your mind especially while leaking the vital information:
1- No branch of any bank will ask you to submit key information like mother’s name, CNIC, ATM card number through an SMS or website
2- Not every website is an official website
3- You need to google down an official website of a certain bank before heading clicking any link in an SMS or email
4- Do not ever share any information on SMS, email, phone call without verifying that the opposite party is a legitimate source
5- In case you get any SMS, email or call from anyone who asks for your key information then make a call on the UAN number of the specific bank and confirm whether you should proceed or not.
A number of Pakistani back account holders have been trapped in the past due to such activities. It would be important to save yourself from such fraudulent activities by keeping in mind the aforementioned points.
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