United Bank Limited (UBL) has sought help from the Federal Investigative Agency (FIA) for investigation into the massages circulating in social media against the bank. According to information sent by the bank to the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX), for the last several months some fake, false and malicious massages being circulated through the social media, particularly WhatsApp. These messages contain inter-alia, derogatory and defamatory remarks against the bank with the intent to damage its reputation.

Therefore, UBL has taken a serious notice of the matter and decided to report to the FIA Cyber Crime Circle under the appropriate laws including the Prevention of Electronic Crime Act (PECA) 2016, the notice said. A high official of UBL told Business Recorder that fake news against UBL is spreading from March this year, when a fake report regarding detention of top management of the bank was released on social media.

"We believed that misinformation and fake messages on social media were a part of a malicious campaign against the bank and fake massages/news on social media can hurt the performance of a corporate institution, therefore UB has reported FIA to avoid the same in future", he added.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2017