Pakistan’s mobile wallet, mobile payments and branchless banking services provider easypaisa has created a fraud awareness campaign, a move that comes amid the rise of scamming incidents in the country.

Pakistan has witnessed a rise in cases where criminals, pretending to be bank officers or representatives of financial institutions, get access to phone numbers of account holders. After a few innocent questions, these people manage to get a hold of crucial information including the PIN that gives them access to funds held inside those accounts. Lack of awareness and access to quality information are huge reasons why people fall for these scams.

In a bid to counter the situation, which results in massive losses to account holders, easypaisa is playing its role to spread awareness, and promoted the term ‘Pin Chor’ to make the name sticky and memorable.

How does this happen?

Every time you perform a transaction on easypaisa, you receive a One-time password (OTP), or a PIN code - your payment is only confirmed, and money is only deducted from your account after you have entered this OTP. The PIN CHORs know this, and unfortunately, most unsuspecting people do not know this. The PIN CHOR performs a transaction from your account, and when the OTP is sent to your number, the PIN CHOR pretends to be someone from the bank, or a security agency, and persuades you to tell him the PIN you have just received.

If you tell them the PIN, you will lose all your money.

What is easypaisa doing about it?

Easypaisa app has a Strong cyber security framework and mechanism. This mechanism includes, for your protection a special One Time Password. Easypaisa has launched a Nationwide campaign to make people aware about the value of this PIN code or One Time Password

The campaign:

Make the words, “OTP PIN” synonymous with “FRAUD”. We have come up with an idea to create a term that is immediately sticky in the mind of customers.

The campaign idea is simple, giving scammers a title to denounce them. Hence, the term Pin Chor.

The Ad:

The ad shows multiple different Pakistanis in different settings and ages and then shows them getting calls by these so-called PIN CHORS. But in our ad, instead of people falling for their trap, our protagonists actually recognise the thieves.

Easypaisa says the campaign is aimed at raising public awareness through all possible platforms.