A large number of people over the last few days have reported receiving telephone calls, allegedly made by impersonators claiming to be army officials, seeking their personal details, including national identity card (CNIC) numbers and bank account information.

This is not the first time such phone calls have been reported. Earlier in January, similar type of phone calls were made to several people, prompting the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) to issue a clarification. The military's media wing had warned the general public against such telephone calls.

The impersonators try to seek personal details on the pretext of census data verification, the ISPR had said, clarifying that no such calls were being made by the armed forces. The ISPR at the time had requested the public to not respond to such calls and "immediately report the same on our emergency helpline UAN 1135 and 1125".

A Facebook user on Wednesday wrote on the Halaat Updates Facebook page: "Is anyone getting calls by the Army, asking for details of your [bank] accounts and all? Yesterday, I received a call."

"When I did not answer properly, someone called from Islamabad saying the Army headquarter is taking details and that why are you not cooperating. Yesterday, on my daughter's number again there was a call. I told them I had given the detail yesterday, but today I got suspicious," the user shared on Facebook.

Responding to the message, several other Facebook users said that they had received similar calls over the past few days. "Yes, I have received a call. Informed to Rangers and also the Pakistan Army on emergency helpline 1135," wrote a user.