I WOULD like to share with the readers a distressing incident which I experienced recently. I got a call from an unknown mobile number with the person on line, saying he was an army officer and that he had called me to verify my details after the census work was completed by the army.

He said this was part of a covert anti-corruption operation by the army.

The person asked for my account details which I refused to share since there was no way to be sure about the authenticity of the call.

The person then asked me my name and asked me about the bank I had my account in which I, unfortunately, shared. He then told me that an email would be sent to my bank from the army and that my bank would contact me shortly.

I later got a call from a landline number directing me to do the same. I next got a call from my bank and the customer service representative told me that an email from an army source had requested certain verification details regarding my account which the bank had shared with them.

Moreover, the bank’s customer service representative directed me to comply with any further information requests from any army representative, saying it was nothing to worry about.

Since the call was from the bank’s official helpline, the experience has left me quite unnerved about the whole incident.

I urge the authorities concerned to clarify the situation.

K. Khan
Islamabad

Published in Dawn, June 19th, 2018