A message promising a Rs13,000 gift to every Pakistani for Iqbal Day celebrations is circulating on WhatsApp and social media, and the NCCIA says it is not real at all.
The message falsely claims the payment comes from Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Iqbal Day. The agency said cybercriminals are using misleading messages and fake links to deceive the public and to obtain personal information.
The warning is now travelling in the same social apps and feeds as the scam itself. Copies of an NCCIA graphic shared on Facebook on Nov 8 show a phone holding a WhatsApp style message stamped FRAUD. The fake text, in Urdu, says Shehbaz Sharif will give Rs13,000 to all Pakistanis for Iqbal Day on Nov 9 if they click a link.
The graphic tells readers not to click the link and it also tells them not to share personal or bank information.
Two links tied to the claim in posts this weekend do not look like government links. One screenshot shows a preview card for wfgxz.buzz next to a portrait of Allama Muhammad Iqbal and the figure 13,000. Another graphic shows a phone with a claim for a Rs13,000 Iqbal Day Special Reward and a link to reward-claim-now.co.
ARY News, reporting the NCCIA advisory, said the agency urged citizens not to click suspicious links and not to forward unverified messages. The August warning about the same amount was more explicit about the cost. It said clicking or entering personal information could expose users to theft of personal data and could result in financial losses.
Here’s why this trap is too dangerous:
The federal government declared Monday, Nov 9 a public holiday for Iqbal Day, marking the 149th birth anniversary of Allama Muhammad Iqbal, in a notification issued by the Cabinet Division on Nov 5. The State Bank of Pakistan told banks to close counters on Monday, which leaves many people with a three day weekend and no branch to check with. The scam arrives dressed as a holiday announcement, at the moment a real holiday announcement is expected and this is a high chance that scammers may be able to grab some innocent people.
This is the second time the Rs13,000 figure has been used around a national holiday in Pakistan this year. On Aug 18, ARY News reported that the National Cyber Emergency Response Team had issued an alert for a similar scam offering a fake cash prize of exact Rs13,000 through SMS and WhatsApp chats that used Pakistan Independence Day celebrations to lure recipients. The team said the messages contained malicious links for grabbing readers’ data and more. It told people to delete them and to block the sender.
The Iqbal Day version keeps the amount the same, but it swaps the holiday and adds the Prime Minister’s name on it.
In comments under a warning video posted Nov 8, viewers wrote that they had not received any money and called the claim fraud. Some wrote that they had clicked a link and then lost access to WhatsApp. Those accounts are unverified. The NCCIA has not published a count of victims or complaints tied to this message.
The warning sits beside a separate alert that shows how the theft often works. The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority warned that callers posing as courier representatives ask for one time passwords to complete a delivery, and told people never to share an OTP with unknown callers.
Complaints in Pakistan now go to the NCCIA, which took over the work of the former Cyber Crime Wing of the Federal Investigation Agency. The portal is complaint.nccia.gov.pk and the helpline is 1799, according to the agency’s published complaint guidance. In person reports go to a Cyber Crime Reporting Center.
The gift never existed for Iqbal Day by any government or private sector. The risk is exposure of the details entered on the linked page, and the chance that those details are used to take over an account or drain a wallet.
A post warning about the scam said legitimate government payments are distributed only through the official 8171 code, not through WhatsApp links.
