Islamabad, Pakistan: Using Bank Credit Cards and ATM Debit Cards for Eid Shopping is a usual practice for Eid spree because carrying heavy cash is not advisable in rush areas. However, Using Bank Credit Cards and ATM Debit Cards for Eid Shopping has become more dangerous as data of several national banks have been compromised and copies of ATM Debit Cards and Credits are being made. May this time you can be a victim.
You can avoid the situation to keep minimum cash in your bank and minimum ceiling of your Credit left with it.
It is pertinent to mention that a number of bank data theft cases done by Chinese citizens were reported in newspapers and a number of banks managed to find data thieves through hardworking and competent cyber watch. However, such criminals were either got bail from courts or came out of police stations through their connections.
In a recent case, Credit Card of a resident of Lahore was compromised and his Credit Card was swapped in Karachi while he was shopping with his card in Lahore. Criminals tried to get an amount of 88,000 from his credit limit but failed because cardholders had less credit limit left n his card. Criminals tried twice but their attempt was foiled by the swift action of Bank as system warned bank staff for something unusual during the attempt of getting shopping of 88,000 of fake duplicate card. The client (cardholder) was contacted by the bank in realtime and bank confirmed that either such transaction was tried in Karachi? On the refusal of cardholder, bank took action instantly. Cardholder was fortunate that he had a shopping of around two and half thousands on same day in Lahore and he did it just an hour before when he duplicate fake card was tried in Karachi.
Some banks are instant in response and have high level of security but some banks have lag attitude therefore cardholders should be careful while using their cards at several outlets because you never know what is “comprising Point” from where data of your card is stolen and somewhere you duplicate fake card is being made.
“Credit Card generators are being spread among criminal networks and one has to be very aware of this situation”, commented a former official of a civil intelligence organization when asked his expert opinion.
When contact, banker with the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk with media said that high-tech thieves are hacking sensitive data from banks and from cell phones and majority of such hi-tech thieves are foreigners but legal system of Pakistan is providing them edge to commit crime and get free through bails or through personal contacts in corridors of power.
Since we cannot change our legal system or cannot fight against corrupt components sitting in our administration who help criminals, we can only safeguard ourselves and protect our hard earn money by avoiding use our cards at outlets where chances of stealing our card information easy.
So Be careful— Keep minimum credit limit in your credit cards and minimum money in your banks and also avoid shopping through your cards during pre-eid days because there is lot of pressure on swift banking system; increasing the chance of comprising of data before security system warns bank officials.
