Factory worker finds himself bank defaulter due to fake account

KARACHI: A few days after the Federal Investigation Agency ­(FIA) – the country's top investigation agency ­– unearthed over Rs2.25 billion from a bank account in the name of a falooda vendor in Orangi Town, a similar scandal surfaced on Sunday when a factory worker in the Korangi area of Karachi submitted an application to the FIA against a fake bank account in his name through which fraudsters had borrowed hundreds of thousands of rupees from the bank.

Shahid Ali, a garment factory worker in Korangi, discovered that a fake bank account had been opened in his name when the bank sent him a notice. "It was really shocking for me when I received a call from a bank, asking to pay the dues," Ali narrated. "At first, I didn't take it seriously but I was worried when the bank sent me a notice." Ali, who works at a garment factory for a daily wage of Rs500, lives in a rented house with his wife and children. "When paying the house rent for me is becoming more and more difficult every passing month, how is it possible for me to take a loan of hundreds of thousands to buy expensive vehicles through credit cards when I never had a bank account," he remarked. "It is a responsibility of the state and authorities concerned to take measures to protect innocent people like me from being victims of fraudsters."

Misery for Ali increased when his landlord watched news on a television channel that said he was a bank defaulter. The landlord threw Ali’s stuff out from the house, asking his family to immediately vacate the place.

Cases of Ali and Abdul Qadir, the falooda vendor in Orangi Town, indicate how criminal elements are opening bank accounts in names of random poor people to carry out their nefarious designs. It came as surprise to Qadir a few days ago that a bank account existed in his name without his knowledge in which someone had deposited a hefty amount of over Rs2.25b. He came to know about billions of rupees deposited in ‘his bank account’ when he received a notice from the FIA.