BAHAWALNAGAR: Three more cases surfaced on Monday where citizens were deprived of their savings.

In the first instance, Ghulam Nabi, a resident of Chak Madrassah, received multiple calls in which the callers claimed to be officers from his bank and demanded his account details.

On his refusal, he was told that his bank account in a private bank in Ghallah Mandi would be closed. He then gave the details to the caller. On the next day, Ghulam Nabi learnt that Rs129,8000 had been withdrawn.

In the second case, disabled clerk Nisar Ahmed, serving in a girls’ college in Chishtian, was forced to share his account details by a female caller and next day Rs36,000 were withdrawn from his account.

A labourer in Faqirwali told media that a caller claiming to be an army officer got details of his ATM PIN and other bank information and an amount of Rs14,000 was withdrawn.

NAROWAL: A suspected hacker has stolen money from accounts of two citizens here last week.

Reports said Shakil Ahmad of Haider Park and Aslam Mukhtar of Sadiqueabad received phone calls from a man impersonating an army major.

The caller said: “The army wants to verify the information which was given by you for census.”

The caller got the bank account particulars from both citizens of Narowal. The suspect allegedly hacked Shakil’s account and withdrew Rs200,000 and Rs500,000 from Aslam Mukhtar’s account. Mukhtar is recently retired from traffic police.

He said: “At first the hacker called from an unknown cell number and wanted to get information by introducing himself as an army major, but I refused to disclose the particulars on which he said will you give the details if you receive a call from the bank head office? After some time I received a call from the private bank [HBL] and the bank employee asked me to provide account details. I told the account number and PIN code.”

Shakil said one year ago he lodged a complaint with the bank about some ATM malfunction and recently I received a call about it and provided account details.

“When I contacted the bank I came to know that Rs200,000 are missing from my account. I had only Rs200,000 which were taken away,” Shakil said.

Aslam Mukhtar said: “I had deposited the amount [Rs500,000] with the bank which I received on retirement from traffic police and now the amount is missing.”

The affected account holders have urged the prime minister and Chief Justice of Pakistan to look into the matter.

SAHIWAL: Hackers took away Rs190,000 from the account of another resident of Chichawatni city on Monday.

Citizen Waheed Nawaz of Khalid Town said he lodged a verbal compliant with the bank manager [JS Bank] and Saddar police station but no action was taken.

Waheed said he received a call from bank head office, Karachi, telling him that Rs190,000 got transferred from his account to another account through ATM. The bank record shows money was transferred to another account holder named Sajid Mahmood.

Waheed said he did not conduct this transaction. He said the local branch staff said his account was hacked.

Last week, a school teacher from Chichawatni was also deprived of Rs400,000 cash by hackers.

Published in Dawn, November 13th, 2018