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Beware! Scammers are misusing MTNL's name to dupe you, Delhi Police warns
Delhi Police has advised people against sharing personal information to suspicious messages. It informed that MTNL does not carry out KYC verification over WhatsApp. It further cautioned against clicking unverified links and downloading dubious apps.
The Delhi Police has warned the citizens against the potential misuse of telecom service provider Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited's name and logo to dupe people via cyber fraud.
Sharing the image of fraudulent WhatsApp message on its twitter handle, Delhi police said that there is a sharp increase in phishing instances using the name and logo of MTNL. It intends to gather confidential details of mobile customers in the pretext of executing their mobile sim and Aadhar card e-KYC, the police said in a tweet.
The hoax message claims that the SIM and Aadhar card's (Aadhar is misspelt as Addhar in the message) e-KYC is barred. This is to seek the details of receiver to make deceit transactions. "The receiver shares the details thinking as if he is sharing it with authorized person. Scammers have been able to breach and get the name and address of the mobile user as the message mentions the details to show authenticity," the police said.
Delhi Police has advised people against sharing personal information to such suspicious messages. It informed that MTNL does not carry out KYC verification over WhatsApp. It further cautioned clicking unverified links and downloading any apps.
Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL) is a wholly owned subsidiary of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited under Ministry of Communications. According to online data portal Statista, as of June 2021, MTNL had 21.5 lakhs wireless subscribers in Delhi. Mumbai had over a 10 lakhs MTNL GSM users. Data breach and fraud in name of it can cause a great harm to its users if they do not remain vigilant to such dubious messages.
India has 646 million active internet users aged two years and above as of December 2021. The minimal awareness and literacy of cyber security make them extremely susceptible to such fraudulent attacks. There was an over five-fold jump in the number of cybercrime and fraud incidents documented by the government between 2018 and 2021. The Centre and states have set up Cyber Cell and police authorities are regularly generating awareness. One can report cyber fraud dialing Cyber financial fraud helpline-1930 or can get help visiting cybercrime website.
