ISLAMABAD: The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has reiterated its decision, asking the general public not to share personal information on fake calls.

“It has come to our knowledge that fraudsters are attempting to defraud the banking customers by seeking bank account details on the pretext of biometric verification,” the SBP said in a statement issued here on Monday.

The central bank said that in many cases this is being done through fake calls by masking the official helpline or registered numbers of banks. The receivers apparently believe that the call is genuine or from the bank and share their personal information including bank account number, ID, password, CNIC number, etc. resulting in loss of funds even during the calls, it added.

The fraudsters generally impersonate as officials of SBP, army officers or representatives of superior courts of law, etc on the pretext of biometric verification of accounts. In this context, the SBP has advised the public to immediately contact their banks on their registered numbers/helpline themselves instead of responding to the incoming calls and sharing their credentials.

It is said that SBP/banks/micro finance banks do not conduct biometric verification of banks’ existing customers through telephone calls. If people receive any such call, they may share details of these cases or incidents with law enforcement agencies or the SBP helpline at 021-111-727-273.

Published in Dawn, July 30th, 2019