Maharashtra: Scammers fraudulently obtain personal data on pretext of COVID-19 vaccine registration

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Reports of cyber criminals fraudulently obtaining personal data of people in the guise of COVID-19 vaccine registrations have started pouring in.

As per a Times of India reports, people are reporting phishing emails and text messages that direct them to a website where they are asked to fill in their personal data like Aadhar and PAN number.

The Maharashtra police cybercrime cell has asked people to beware of such traps and to only trust government websites like vaccine.icmr.org.in.

It has also been announced that messages on chat apps and social media should not be paid heed to.

"The fraudsters are targeting people in another way too, which especially targets senior citizens. The elderly are getting calls from the so-called ‘Drug Authority of India' and are told that their vaccine allocation is ready. They are told that to avail of that, they need to share their Aadhaar number, etc, and also reveal OTP numbers they would receive on their phones. But within seconds, they would discover that money was fraudulently transferred from their accounts," said cyber expert Ritesh Bhatia.

A cybercrime cell official said, "Ads are being published through this medium that the vaccine is supplied on a priority basis by making payments through bitcoins on the darknet. Lakhs of cyber attacks are taking place. Also attacks are being carried out on companies that are getting rights on Covid data and fraudster are trying to steal such data to sell it to rival companies. The Interpol has alerted agencies worldwide about the fraud."