ISLAMABAD, June 7: For cellphone scammers, Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) is the new golden goose as they have been using the name of the programme to obtain information and collect money from unsuspecting people, Dawn has learnt.

“A number of mobile phone text messages asking the poor beneficiaries to submit their application money through easy paisa has created a lot of concerns for us,” said a senior official of the BISP.

The BISP has launched the mobile phone banking service in five districts of the country to ensure speedy transfer of cash to its beneficiaries.

According to an official, free mobile phone sets have been provided to the beneficiaries. “Beneficiaries are sent a 16-digit code by the BISP which they share with their cellphone operator’s franchise.

After a few verifications like the CNIC, the beneficiaries are issued around Rs1,000 and Rs2,000 as per the allocation of fund from the franchise operators,” said the BISP official.

Bilquis Fatima (name changed) is one such victim in Islamabad’s rural area.

She received one such message from a mobile phone number asking her to submit Rs3,000 for a Rs25,000 loan to be given by the BISP.

“I deposited Rs3,000 with an agent in the town but lost the amount and never got the loan,” she told Dawn.

The BISP official, however, said a request for an investigation into the fake messaging services and calls had been sent to the director general Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), the chairman of Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), managing director Tameer Microfinance Bank, secretary information technology and the secretary to President Asif Ali Zardari.

“This complaint has be taken up by the cyber crime cell of the FIA but letters were addressed to a number of federal government officials because a complaint regarding fake text messages was also registered with the office of the President,” added the official. An FIA official said multiple mobile numbers were used by the fraudsters who were using the easy paisa scheme as a tool to mint money from the poor, especially in the rural parts of the country.

Another Benazir Income Support Programme official added: “If you call on these numbers, the fraudsters pretending to be BISP officials will ask you to deposit a processing fee with the easy paisa to get the Rs25,000 loan.”

He added: “We have warned the citizens not to send any money or information to mobile phones from which they receive such messages or calls,” said the official.

When a senior official of the BISP was asked whether people had lost money through this fake mobile phone text service, he said:

“We have received complaints from a number of people in interior of Sindh and Punjab where the practice had become a routine.”

He said losing Rs20 or Rs30 was a normal practice since people were attracted to messages offering cash incentives through the multiple BISP prgrammes.