Haryana police cautions retired govt staff against cyber frauds

(Representational Image)

Haryana Police Wednesday issued an advisory requesting citizens, especially the recently retired government employees, not to share any personal information with any unknown person or caller as it could lead to them being defrauded on the pretext of post-retirement benefits.

“A new trend of cyber crime has come to the fore in which fraudsters have started targeting the retired government officials with an aim to dupe them on the pretext of post-retirement pension benefits taking advantage of lockdown restrictions,”said Navdeep Singh Virk, ADGP Law & Order, Haryana

Explaining the modus operandi, Virk said, “Such fraudsters first gather some basic personal information about the retired personnel and then call the victim in the name of government treasury department. Subsequently, they try to win the confidence of the victim by mentioning personal information correctly like date of birth, date of superannuation and last posting held by the officer. Soon after, they try to cheat the victims by seeking information like bank account number, password and details of transactions for updating data pertaining to their pension”.

Suggesting people to be extremely cautious, Virk advised them “never to share confidential information like bank account number, password, OTP and transaction details”. Virk added that “if however you still become a victim, ensure you file your complaint with the nearest police station or at cybercrime.gov.in immediately”.

Haryana is adding six more new cyber crime police stations, one each at Faridabad, Rohtak, Karnal, Ambala, Hisar and Rewari. These will be in addition to the two existing cyber crime police stations presently at Panchkula and Gurugram.