Just in time for Eid-ul-Fitr the metropolitan city of Karachi is gripped by cybercrimes that originated from an online debit card scam. At this point in time, a lot of people are shopping online for the festivities and it is the ideal time for the perpetrators to steal from people. The customers started complaining of the online debit card scam in a Facebook group famously known as ‘Voice of Customers.’
Online debit card scam through Google
The officials of the cybercrime wing received numerous complaints in the last two days regarding an online debit card scam through the Google search engine for the transactions. The officials said that it is difficult to ascertain the exact number of affected citizens through the online scam. As per details, small transactions were made through the bank accounts of different citizens in global currencies.
The two private banks targeted in the online debit card fraud were UBL and Standard Chartered Bank. However, there are no official statements from the banks yet but the customers are posting their complaints on the social media group to aware the fellow citizens of the online scam. The exact number of affectees is still unknown as initially, only those customers came to know about being defrauded who receive emails or text messages regarding transactions on their mobile numbers.
The first-hand account of victims
Kamran Hammad posted a Screenshot of his account statement where numerous Google transactions can be seen. He wrote; “I never thought that I will post here, but my #ubl account information is hacked today. 14 transactions have been made from my debit card at GOOGLE*MUD. (wow… I never made this many transactions in a day). I blocked my debit card and UBL customer care agents are all busy for the previous 2 hours. Even their online complaint service is down.”
Another victim Saima Ghayas wrote; “I faced a scam and fraudulent activity with my Standard Chartered Bank debit card last night. Someone hacked my card and used it to buy games from Steam Purchase and Blizzard Entertainment. The scammer started with $ 1 and then $99.99, he kept on transacting in dollars until all my money is gone. I tried calling the helpline to block the card as soon as I got the transaction messages but it was too late. The bank blocked the card and put these transactions in the fraud cases. It will take 120-180 days to resolve the issue.”
Read more: HBL Makes Unauthorized Transactions to User Accounts and Users are Clueless
