Rawalpindi-As many as 32 citizens having accounts in a private bank branch located in Saddar lost thousands of rupees in last couple of days after falling prey to an ATM skimming fraud, sources said on Wednesday.

The gang sitting in Karachi hacked ATM cards of the 32 customers and withdrew thousands of rupees from their accounts, the sources added. Of the 32, there was a female student namely Eliza studying in Malaysia who lost Rs0.4 million at the hands of skimming fraud gang, sources added.

The victims have started pouring in the bank branch and lodging complaints with the manager. The bank manager reportedly has filed an application with Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) for action against the fraudsters’ gang sitting in Karachi, they said.

The sources claimed the administration of private bank had not reported the fraud to the local police.

Meanwhile, the bank manager in a statement said that the hackers had hacked the ATM cards of 32 account holders and transactions were made in Karachi by the gang of hackers. He said that the hackers looted all the consumers who used ATM cards by January 1, 2018.

He said that the gang of hackers committed fraud between the night of Saturday and Sunday last. He said that so far the bank has blocked more than 1,800 ATMs to avoid customers becoming victims of skimming fraud.

He said that a large numbers of customers were approaching bank administration in this regard.

He said that the matter was also brought into notice of State Bank of Pakistan besides seeking its help to trace the skimming fraud gang.

SP Potohar Division Syed Ali, when contacted, said that nobody had lodged complaint with the police so far. He said that it might be possible that the victims approached FIA Cyber Crimes Cell for legal action against the fraudsters.