Deputy Secretary Law of the Punjab Assembly Khalid Mehmood on Friday claimed that Rs25,000 had been stolen from his bank account through ATM (automated teller machine) transactions over the past month.
Mehmood claimed that the sum had been stolen from his account at National Bank of Pakistan over the past month.
He added that the money had been taken through three ATM transactions carried out at different bank branches.
In
the first and second transaction, a sum of Rs10,000 was withdrawn each
time. In the third and last transaction, Rs5,000 was extracted, Mehmood
told DawnNews.
Mehmood said he has filed an
application with the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), seeking a probe
into the matter. He said he has also ordered a complete bank statement
to check if any other suspicious activity has taken place.
Earlier this week, Habib Bank Limited confirmed that hundreds of its bank accounts were hacked through ATM cards and that over Rs10 million had been stolen from 559 of its accounts.
FIA
officials said they were waiting for more details before launching a
probe connecting this with a recent fraudulent activity in which several
foreigners had been arrested for allegedly stealing data from banks
with skimming devices at ATM facilities.
Rs10m stolen from 559 bank accounts in ATM fraud
KARACHI: A private bank has confirmed that hundreds of its
bank accounts were hacked through ATM (automated teller machine) cards
as Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) officials said on Monday they were
waiting for more details before launching a probe connecting this with a
recent fraudulent activity in which several foreigners had been
arrested for allegedly stealing data from banks with skimming devices at
ATM facilities.
The Habib Bank Limited confirmed that over Rs10 million had been stolen from 559 of its accounts.
Naveed Asghar, a corporate and marketing executive of the HBL, told Dawn that there was no need to panic as the amount would be reimbursed to the affected clients.
“The
amount stolen through fraud was Rs10.2m while the number of accounts
holders affected is 559,” he said. “We have over 10m customers which
means that the size of the amount missing is not very significant for
the HBL, while the number of customers affected is also low. It is a
fraud and we must check it and find the culprits...it happens in all
countries that use ATMs.”
Customers advised against panic as their money will be reimbursed
He said that they were not aware of who the hackers were,
but added that the transactions had been traced to Indonesia, China and
other countries.
In June 2016, the FIA arrested and
booked a Chinese national under sections of the Electronic Transactions
Ordinance and the Pakistan Penal Code for defrauding bank users. Then in
March this year, the FIA’s cybercrime wing arrested two more Chinese
nationals under the same charges.
The FIA suggested that
the use of “obsolete technology” by banks for ATMs and decades-old
security system at booths had made them an easy target for an “organised
foreign group”. The situation had prompted the FIA to approach the
State Bank of Pakistan and ask banks to enhance security measures at the
ATMs, and include the introduction of biometric features for the use of
service.
The recent report by the HBL sent alarms bell
ringing in the State Bank of Pakistan where officials spent a busy day
discussing the fraud and gathering details of the alleged crime to learn
about “how the security was breached and how much risk this hacking
involved”.
“We have been in contact with the HBL to
learn the exact situation of the problem but are searching for details,”
said Abid Qamar, chief spokesperson for the State Bank. “We want to
know how the security was breached and how much risk was involved in
this hacking. We still don’t know how much amount was stolen. Similarly,
we don’t know the whereabouts of the hackers. Currently it is all
speculation.”
The FIA had a similar viewpoint, saying
that they could only confirm that several bank accounts had been hacked,
but the details of this were still awaited.
“I can
confirm the incident but the fact is that there is no formal complaint
lodged with the FIA,” said Hameed Bhutto, the FIA deputy director for
cybercrime.
“We are aware of the fraud but are not aware
of its volume or nature, which could give us leads and help launch the
probe. Last year and then a few months ago, the FIA had arrested Chinese
nationals involved in stealing data from banks, but we are not sure
what kind of criminal activity has been executed while hacking the
accounts of any banks recently,” he added.