American embassy in the United States issued an expert over the scam calling, saying that the cybercriminals, pretending to be from the ambassador, gave contact to people to cheat them.
In the expert, the ambassador said that fraudsters are spoofing Embassy of India phone lines to create calls, claiming that there are errors in their passports, card forms, immigration forms, which could be rectified only by paying cash often face deportation or their imprisonment.
” It has been brought to the notice of the Embassy that some fraudsters are spoofing Embassy of India phone lines to make calls aimed at cheating people. Some of these calls are shown as being from the Embassy telephone numbers ( 202-939-7000 ) while others simply use Embassy identity”, Indian embassy said.
American embassy in US’s advice on scams calls
” These fraudsters either get personal information like credit card details accessories. or try to extort cash from Indian citizens by inter alia claiming that there are mistakes in their documents, card forms, immigration aspects etc. which could be rectified by paying cash, and at the same time warning that the so called issues, if no rectified, could result in imprisonment of the individual to India or their prison in USA. In some cases, these cybercriminals have furthermore falsely claimed that they received for privileged data from the Embassy or another regulators in India. Visa applicants have also received for calling purporting to be from the Embassy”, it added.
The embassy clarified that if any additional documentation is required from an existing applicant, it will be asked through email ( s ) originating from the email domain @mea. gov. in.
The Embassy of India advised people not to satisfy any suspicious phone calls made in their name and also asked not to disclose any personal data or move any money in response to such calling.
” Also If you want to share the information on spoofed telephone calls please fill the form and send it by email to cpers. [email protected]. in with a subject: INFORMATION ON SPOOFED CALLS”, it added.
