Digital Fraud Rise 63% in Pakistan during Pandemic

An increase in Internet banking and online shopping becomes a reason to rise financial fraud in Pakistan. As per the latest report, Digital Fraud in Pakistan has reported a rise of 63 percent. Consumer concerns about financial systems have also risen significantly with the increase in online shopping and internet banking usage during the COVID-19 outbreak.

According to the information presented in the Mohammad Kamran Shehzad, Banking Ombudsman’s report, a total of 25,500 bank complaints were registered during the last year in 2020, 84% of complaint had been fixed and almost 598 million PKR has been transferred to the victims.

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Digital Fraud Rise 63% in Pakistan during Pandemic

Mohammad Kamran Shahzad disclosed during the press conference that 15,600 reports have been registered in 2019 but during the lockdown, complaints have increased, received 25,500 complaints last year.

During the lockdown, the number of Digital banking users increased but their concerns regarding digital banking have also increased significantly in 2020. Furthermore, in the first two months of last year, witnessed a sudden increase in complaints, it was expected that the number of registered complaints might reach 40,000 in 2020.

89% of financial fraud victims were men and 11% of complaint victims were women according to the complaint report. Mr. Shehzad stated that also Overseas Pakistanis are now also seeking help from Banking Ombudsman. The platform got 10,000 to 12,000 complaints, most of them related to 5 big banks.

The Financial Ombudsman cleared that banks cant follow the wrong recovery behavior and threatened fines for inappropriate behavior of banks. He also said that Online banking should not be activated without customer consent and banks should concentrate to deliver the knowledge among the consumer to avoid online fraud. Due to lack of knowledge regarding online activities, there has been a 1000% increased in complaints related to online transactions.

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