Fraudsters duping people on pretext of Covid vaccine registration

Haryana Police advises people not to entertain any phone calls on vaccine registration and refrain from sharing personal data

In view of the ongoing coronavirus vaccination drive, the Haryana Police on Saturday cautioned citizens against fraudsters who could dupe them on the pretext of registration for Covid-19 vaccine.

Fraudsters have been collecting sensitive personal information such as Aadhaar number and email on the pretext of Covid-19 vaccine registration. (HT File)

Additional director general of police, law and order, Navdeep Singh Virk said that cyber criminals never run out of ideas to cash in on the situation.

“Such scammers may defraud citizens through phone calls, emails or even by WhatsApp and other social media applications, asking them their details for getting themselves registered for the vaccine,” the ADGP said.

Referring to the way the fraudsters operate, Virk said that such fraudsters were found making phone calls to people, offering to register their names for the vaccine. With this, they were collecting sensitive personal information such as Aadhaar number and email on the pretext of Covid-19 vaccine registration.

“They also ask unsuspecting people to authenticate the Aadhaar number by sharing an OTP (one-time password). The moment the OTP is given; money is siphoned off from the Aadhaar-linked bank account,” Virk said.

The ADGP advised people not to entertain any phone calls on vaccine registration and refrain from sharing personal data.