WASHINGTON – Indian Embassy in United States telephone lines have beenreportedly hacked and spoofed by some fraudsters, it has been reported inthe Indian media.
Indian Embassy telephones lines spoofed by fraudsters in the US to cheatpeople for money, according to an advisory issued by the mission whichwarned against entertaining any suspicious calls.
The Indian Embassy in Washington has informed the US government about itand launched its own internal investigation. It also issued a rare publicadvisory on such fraud calls that has cheated people with money.
“These fraudsters either seek personal information like credit card detailsetc. or try to extort money from Indian nationals by inter alia claimingthat there are errors in their passports, visa forms, immigration formsetc. which could be rectified by paying money, and at the same time warningthat the so called errors, if not rectified, could result in deportation ofthe individual to India or their imprisonment in USA,” the Indian Embassysaid in its advisory.
Some of the Indian nationals living in the US, who received such call,brought to the notice of the Embassy that some fraudsters are spoofingEmbassy of India telephone lines to make calls aimed at cheating people.
Some of these calls are shown as being from the Embassy telephone numberswhile others simply use Embassy identity.
In some cases, these fraudsters also claimed that they received suchinformation from the Embassy or other authorities in India. Visa applicantshave also received such calls purporting to be from the Embassy.
The Indian Embassy has started collecting information from the public,including details of the Western Union account number or bank accountdetails where the money was transferred.
In its advisory, the Indian Embassy said none of its officials make anytelephone calls seeking personal information from any Indian or foreignnationals.
In case of any additional documentation is required from an existingapplicant, it is sought only through emails originating from the officialdomain, it said.
It urged people living in the US not to entertain any suspicious telephonecalls made in the name of Embassy of India. It also advised people not toreveal any personal information or transfer any money in response to suchcalls.
This is for the first time probably that fraudsters have been spoofingIndian Embassy phone numbers.
According to informed US government officials, in the past they havereceived similar complaints from other diplomatic missions as well, inparticular those from the European nations.
Officials said while the spoofing technology is easily available, it istough to get to the origin of such phone calls. Americans have beenfrequent victims of such phone calls -from call centres in India – onbehalf of the US Internal Revenue Service. In several joint operations inthe last one year, Indian authorities have arrested scores of people makingsuch fraud calls