While authorities are scheduled to conduct coronavirus vaccination in the coming weeks, unscrupulous elements have called on residents of Uttar Pradesh to seek their personal details under the pretext of vaccine registration. Since then, several instances of such fraud have come to the attention of the authorities.
A large number of individuals in Gorakhpur, Deoria, Basti, Mau, Ghazipur, and Pratapgarh received calls from cybercriminals to request important personal information such as Aadhaar number, bank account, and insurance policy details.
Alerted by these cyber frauds to the possibility of duping gullible people, health and police officials have now called on the public not to fall into the pit and not to disclose any information.
“The Health Department is not making any calls to register people for vaccination. The vaccination of frontline warriors will possibly begin in the third week of January 2021,” a senior health official said.
“There is no need to furnish any details to anyone in the name of registration for the vaccine as people could become victims of cybercrime. Many cases of fraud in the name of registration for vaccination against Covid-19 have come to our attention,” a senior health officer added.
Additional Director General of Police Dawa Sherpa said that the cases of online fraud have come to light in the name of vaccination registration. So, I appeal to people not to fall for such frauds. I make it clear that no company or government official has talked about the distribution of vaccines or vaccination drives. As and when the vaccination process begins, the public will be informed.
The Centre and States’ twenty-three ministries and departments have been established and assigned functions (planning, execution, social mobilization, generation of information, etc.) for the implementation of vaccines.
For the Covid-19 vaccine storage, a total of 29,000 cold chain points, 240 walk-in coolers, 70 walk-in freezers, 45000 ice-lined refrigerators, 41000 deep freezers, and 300 solar refrigerators will be used.
Incidents of fraudsters already on the prowl have been sporadically published. Calls were made to citizens in Madhya Pradesh asking them to pay Rs 500 and register for the vaccine. Haryana, Hyderabad, and Telangana fraudsters are targeting individuals under the pretext of registering for the Covid-19 vaccine.
We build awareness among individuals and ask them not to share any OTP and download any registration app,” said Rajat Sakhlecha, additional police superintendent of the MP cyber cell.”