One of the most trusted banks of Pakistan, Standard Chartered Bank, has reportedly received a major blow,as number of its ATM accounts have been hacked.
According to official reports, a number of people have received SMS and email alerts of transactions, summing up to PKR 50,000, which they did not conduct while others’ ATM cards and debit cards failed to work.
Early investigations have revealed that these SCB accounts had been hacked from England and within a few seconds a huge amount have been transferred across oceans. Most of the Pakistanis have their employee accounts in the trusted bank and upon hearing the news, rushed to their nearest branches for a complaint.
While the affected parties have been consoled with the promise of reimbursement by the bank, it seems like it is going to be some time before investigations are complete and money is returned to their rightful owners. Moreover, the bank has blocked the debit cards, with hackers having access to all information now and customers have been asked to get new ones issued.
While the customer care center was helpful to most victims of the fraud, others received a more cold reply. According to ProPakistani, an affected customer was turned away by the branch manager, “When I contacted branch manager, he said that your account got trouble due to criminal activity. I was advised to meet bankers working in the fraud department in order to get my money back.”
There have been a number of similar cases in Pakistan before, it is disappointing to see a bank of reputation, like SCB, to be unable to ward off such threats.
A Standard Chartered spokesman, Farhan Ahmed was quoted saying, “The money in the customers’ bank accounts is insured and given to them in case of any such incident. The money of the customers is being reimbursed and majority of them received their cash in their accounts already.”
