Indian embassy in US warns against fraud calls impersonating officials

Indian embassy in the United States issued an advisory over the fraud calls, saying that the fraudsters, pretending to be from the embassy, gave call to people to cheat them.
In the advisory, the embassy said that fraudsters are spoofing Embassy of India telephone lines to make calls, claiming that there are errors in their passports, visa forms, immigration forms, which could be rectified only by paying money otherwise face deportation or their imprisonment.
"It has been brought to the notice of the Embassy that some fraudsters are spoofing Embassy of India telephone 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.

" 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. In some cases, these fraudsters have also falsely claimed that they received such privileged information from the Embassy or other authorities in India. Visa applicants have also received such calls 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 public not to entertain any suspicious telephone calls made in their name and also asked not to reveal any personal information or transfer any money in response to such calls.
"Also If you want to share the information on spoofed telephone calls please fill the form and send it by email to cpers.washington@mea.gov.in with a subject: INFORMATION ON

SPOOFED CALLS

," it added.