Easypaisa Fraud- Beware, or Else you will Lose Your Money

Easypaisa is one of the most widely used platforms that is used to send, receive and save money in a virtual wallet. The digital payment services have witnessed a sudden spike during lockdown when people are relying on cashless banking and avoiding going out. However, with every good service comes scammers, who are taking advantage of the over usage of such digital services, try to misguide people. There are so many examples in Pakistan when good things have turned in to disasters thanks to the hackers and spammers who are extra smart than the cyber department keeping an eye on such activities. Previously it was Benazir Income Support Program which lost its charm due to the frauds associated with it, and now it’s Easypaisa’s turn. Many people would have become a victim of this Easypaisa Fraud.

Easypaisa Fraud- The New in Town

Many people, including myself, received a message yesterday from the official number of Easypaisa from which I keep on getting other important notifications like money transfer, offers and many other such things. It was the message:

“HUM MART PVT LTD has requested you to pay Rs. 2257.00. Login to Easypaisa App>My Approvals (Top left Menu)> pending approvals>approve to complete payments. Please approve within 1 minute.”

As I am a regular user of Easypaisa and use it for daily transactions, I was quite confused, and I asked my sister if she has bought something from HUM Mart as my Easypaisa account is also used by my family. As she wasn’t replying, for a second, I decided to follow the steps as after all I had received it from the actual number of Easypaisa “3737”. ThankGod, my sister, replied and told me that she had not ordered anything.

I was curious, so I went to Hum Mart PVT LTD, and I found out that this was the actual method to buy products from Hum Mart Using Easypaisa, and now scammers are using it to fraud people.

After some time I also received a call from a person who told me that he is very poor and accidentally he has added my number (Easypaisa account) due to which the money has come to my account. So he insisted me to add the pin code so that he can get his money back.

I am educated and could easily read and rethink on the overall situation, which saved me from losing this much amount from my account. However, EasyPaisa is not just for educated people; in fact, their target market these days is those people who don’t have bank accounts and might not be that much educated. According to the company, most of their clients are poor people belonging from vulnerable backgrounds, and due to easy of usage, they have shifted to Easypaisa. I agree with it as my house worker use it often to send money home, which is quite far away.

Though it’s neither the fault of EasyPaisa or Hum Mart, but don’t you think a company should notify its users to beware of such scam that is going on their platform? With so much advertisement when it comes to sending eidi via EasyPaisa, was a company not capable of a single message or post on their social account warning its customer?

While State Bank of Pakistan waiving all charges when it comes to online fund transfer, it had also advised the financial industry to increase vigilance on a digital channel and increase monitoring on cyber threats. But it seems the company is busy advertising other products while their customers are falling prey to this fraud.
In the end, I will only ask the EasyPaisa customers, not to give out their personal information like your OTP, PIN Code and ID card number to any person from any non-secure number or even from secure numbers.

Easypaisa’s Statement:

Easypaisa has come forward for the clarification and such  quick response is highly appreciable.

“Deceptive and fraudulent calls and SMSs across all industries have unfortunately become a frequent occurrence. However, as a responsible and diligent corporate entity, we continue to educate customers regularly against falling victim to such actions. We have zero tolerance towards illegal activities and continue to implement strict internal as well as external protocols to ensure the safety of our customers and their assets at all times. We are also in the process of implementing systems which could further prevent such occurrences from happening to unsuspecting customers.

The trust that our valued clients place in us is of utmost importance and we go to extreme lengths in ensuring that standard operating procedures are observed at all times. We never ask for confidential information from our customers on SMS, Email, hyperlinks, websites or phone calls. Furthermore, we urge everyone not to share their personal details such as bank account information CNIC, OTP/ATM Pin, with anyone pretending to call or communicate from SBP, BISP, FIA, NAB, Army or any other organization/agency”.

Also Read: How to create an Easypaisa account?