On the first day of Eidul-Fitr (April 12), I received an unusual request on Messenger that left me scratching my head.
The message was from an old school friend, a year senior to me, who I hadn’t heard from for nearly a decade. However, we have been friends on Facebook since our school days. So, when I received a message from him after noon on Eid, I was both surprised and curious. It was neither a greeting nor what I would call a formal start of a conversation. whatsapp number send me, he messaged. The message looked a bit off, but I didn’t pay much heed to it. The profile picture was the same that my friend Hameed* had uploaded to his Facebook profile early that day wishing us all a happy Eid, so any suspicions about the authenticity of the profile evaded me. I shared my number. He then texted me on WhatsApp within a minute from a foreign number — asked me how I was doing and all. The conversation went fine till he made an usual request.
Actually, there is a friend in Pakistan. I have to send him some money, but I’m facing some account issues here. It is urgent, he said (translated roughly from Roman Urdu). What alerted me was that the message abounded in textual inconsistency — unnecessary capitalisation, awkward placement of commas, among others.
Hameed, who is an engineer, is currently pursuing his higher studies in Germany. I quickly went over to the sender’s Facebook profile and found it was an imposter. Just out of curiosity and the urge to investigate, I kept the conversation going. The amount he said his “friend” needed was Rs50,000. I said it was too much and that I could only arrange Rs25,000. He instantly agreed and provided me with a JazzCash number and the name of his friend who was in urgent need of money. I proceeded to add the number to my beneficiary list and it fetched a name that differed from the one provided. Although I had known by now that it was a scam, I only followed through with it in an attempt to ascertain who could be behind it. After I didn’t respond and visited the profile some time later, the page didn’t exist any more.
(It is not advisable to respond to imposter accounts. The steps highlighted in this report were taken purely for investigation purposes.)
I contacted Hameed, who told me that he had already been informed about the scam and had posted a “Fake Account Alert” with several screenshots on his Facebook profile four days previously. Since I rarely use Facebook, I had missed the post. Hameed said his identity was being used to scam people and a dozen of his friends and relatives had received the same messages, who, at first believing that it was him, fortunately declined the amount transfer. Hameed requested me to report the page, but it no longer existed. However, two days later, when I revisited the fake account, it was somehow active again. I registered a complaint with the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) through their online portal.
Online scams on the rise
This is not only the scamming incident that I encountered personally or came across this year. Many of my friends, who are either based abroad or travel to other countries, have put up posts on their Facebook profiles, warning their friends and relatives not to respond to any profile in their name requesting for a money transfer. In January, I received a friend request from an account in the name of another friend Behzad*, who is also based in Germany. Unlike Hameed, Behzad was not aware of it. After I informed him via Instagram with a screenshot of the fake profile, he was taken aback and asked me to report it. That account remains suspended, however.
Mavia Khan, who works as director of sales for a US-based Amazon firm remotely from Karachi, travelled to Saudi Arabia in December last year to perform Umrah. Before departure, Mavia had posted an update on his Facebook profile informing his friends that he was travelling. The scammers, learning from Mavia’s status that he would not be in Pakistan, took advantage of the situation.
“People who knew who I would be available on WhatsApp throughout reached out to me and told me that there was an account in my name randomly texting my friends and relatives asking for money,” Mavia told Digital Rights Monitor (DRM). What is more concerning here is that the scammer knew about Mavia’s bank, too. “I quickly posted a warning on Facebook asking my friends not to respond to this imposter. Often, the accounts they [scammers] share for money transfer are hacked, too. If I really needed the money, it is obvious that I would share the account details of my parents or siblings, whose names my friends very well know, not a random person named ‘Razia’ nobody around me has ever heard of.”
Online scams are commonplace around the world, targeting especially those who are less informed about cybercrime and naively fall into such traps. News publications routinely carry investigative reports on online fraud, detailing experiences of individuals who lose a significant amount of their money to scammers. These scams come in various forms and by different means. Fraudsters claiming to be from official state authorities obtaining sensitive banking details of citizens, bogus investment schemes promising unrealistic profits, unauthorised loan apps blackmailing lenders by accessing their contact lists, etc.
However, the recent rise in these scams in Pakistan is particularly concerning, as scammers are specifically impersonating people they know are not based in Pakistan or are travelling abroad. The accounts included in this report are just few of the many scams that have taken place over the last two months around me. Several of my friends, during this period, have shared screenshots of WhatsApp chats from scammers with their friends and relatives, warning them not to respond to deceptive requests and report the accounts immediately. Unfortunately, a few of the people who were targeted by these scammers have lost more than Rs10,000 at least.
Deceptive phone calls
In Pakistan, scammers have also been reported to purport themselves to be officials from the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) and the Pakistan Army. Adept at communicating in a professional manner, they often trap individuals on the pretext of ensuring security of their bank accounts and deploy various intimidation tactics, which leads to victims sharing their sensitive banking details. These scammers already have their targets’ National Identity Card (CNIC) numbers and residential information, which, unfortunately, can be obtained from various illegal and unauthorised online platforms operating in the country.
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Zaid*, a Karach-based educationist, told DRM about a phone call he received last week that sent him into a state of alarm and fear. The caller claimed he was an official from the Pakistan Army. “The person first asked me to confirm my personal information such as my name, the names of mother and father, and the city of my residence.” What frightened Zaid was when the caller said that nine people associated with him had been arrested in Karachi for “serious financial crimes”. Zaid said his mind went blank after hearing it, but he tried his best to sound confident.
“It was when the caller mentioned my bank’s name that I realised it was a scam,” said Zaid. “I knew instantly he was going to ask for my sensitive banking details next, so I hung up with a sigh of relief.” Zaid quipped if he had really been involved in what the caller claimed were “serious financial crimes”, why he would ask for his banking details in the first place. “They would pick me up directly from my home just like those ‘nine men’ rather than having such a detailed call and alerting me to my own ‘crime’. Wouldn’t that have allowed me enough time to flee?” he said with a laugh.
About a month ago, I also received a phone call from a person who claimed to be from the SBP. It was a landline number and the caller sounded so professional that I, for a moment, was convinced that he could be from the SBP. However, as he went on to ask me about my confidential banking information after reading out to me my correct CNIC number, I put the phone down.
Similar phone calls have also been reported in the past. In June 2022, DRM posted an article detailing the experience of an X user who received a call from a man claiming to be from the army. The caller demanded her banking details, including whether she possessed an ATM, and her bank balance. When she inquired why the army would need her banking details, the scammer said her accounts were under investigation as they were “being used in actions against Pakistan”. Later, more users came forward with their own accounts of dealing with scammers who impersonated army officials and asked for their confidential banking details.
It is, therefore, advised to stay vigilant on social media platforms. While these scams cannot be entirely stamped out, we can take various precautionary measures to prevent them. For instance, when putting up an update about travelling abroad on Facebook and Instagram, you can include a note alerting your friends and relatives about the potential emergence of fake accounts in your name. It is much easier to detect a scam if you are familiar with the writing style of your friends and relatives in online chats. Besides, to strengthen the safety of your bank accounts, it is advisable that you change your passwords and codes every three months. Avoid saving your bank account credentials in browsers for temporary convenience. Always cover the keypad with your hand while entering your pin at ATM machines.
*Names withheld to protect privacy
