Fraudsters Spoofed Indian Embassy Phone lines in US for Extortion Asylum rwxr-xr-x 0 4:04 AM

Filename	Fraudsters Spoofed Indian Embassy Phone lines in US for Extortion
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Date and Time	4:04 AM
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Fraudsters have spoofed telephone lines of Indian Embassy in the United States demanding people to pay off for consular services, according to an advisory issued from the embassy in Washington.

The embassy added that any of their officials would never contact people on phone for anything and the asked the applicants to be alert. They have reported this matter to American authorities as well as the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) headquarters in New Delhi.

The internal invesigation has been started, but there is no further details about it.

According to an official, they got to know about the fraud when they received several phone calls from people who claimed they were called by officials. Now, the embassy officiers fear of a data breach.

"These fraudsters either seek personal information like credit card details etc. or try to extort money from Indian nationals by inter-alia claiming that there are errors in their passports, visa forms, immigration forms etc. which could be rectified by paying money, and at the same time warning that the so called errors, if not rectified, could result in deportation of the individual to India or their imprisonment in USA," the Indian Embassy said in its advisory.

Sometimes the fraudsters simply used an enbassy identity while some of the time they used the the embassy telephone numbers.

The applicants were threatened that if they don’t pay up in time, their passports or immigration status could be in jeopardy. The fraudsters have used bank accounts to receive the payments.

The officials have started collecting information from the public, including details of the Western Union account number or bank account details where the money was transferred.

Indian Embassy in the US and Europehas urged its people not to entertain any suspicious telephone calls made in the name of Embassy of India. It also advised people not to reveal any personal information or transfer any money in response to such calls.

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