ISLAMABAD: President Dr Arif Alvi has directed Habib Bank Limited (HBL) to pay Rs249,525 to a cook whose money was fraudulently withdrawn online from his account by swindlers.

The president directed all the banks to regularly caution their customers and clients about banking scams, including banking frauds involving online fund transfers, and improve communications with their clients.

He said innocent people were being frequently entrapped by fraudsters and swindled out of their hard-earned money through fake calls, sometimes even from the banking premises.

He announced the directives on a petition filed by HBL against a decision of the federal ombudsman.

Rejecting the bank’s contention, President Alvi directed the HBL to pay Rs249,525 to cook Ali Mohammad, a resident of Rahim Yar Khan. The poor man had been defrauded of his money by swindlers who had obtained his personal banking credentials by posing as bank officials on telephone and got the money transferred out of his account through online means.

The president said that as per the directives of the SBP, the HBL was bound to obtain the customer’s consent before activating the Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) facility but the bank had failed to submit any document/evidence to the effect that it had complied with the provisions of law, rules and regulations.

Published in Dawn, September 12th, 2022