Ottawa, Canada:
Hoax calls to Indians abroad has prompted the Embassies in 5 countries including Canada, France, Italy, Spain and Portugal to send out notices to all Indians in their areas. The notices mention; not to disclose any personal details on phone regarding immigration or finances.
Vinod Kuruvilla, 40,complained that he got a call from someone claiming to be a representative from Indian High Commission in Ottawa, Canada. The caller scared Vinod that his immigration papers were out of order and to maintain his legal he must immediately transfer $1000 to the bank account he mentioned. Vinod is an engineer from India who migrated to Canada around 6 months back. He called up Indian High Commission in Ottawa and he was then told by the representatives that this is a part of cyber crime that is causing havoc for many people all across.
Vinod said, “The embassy officials told me to approach local police and advised me against giving out bank details or money”
This was not an isolated call and many Missions from around the world have claimed that Immigrants are being targeted with such hoax calls leading up to either the person giving in money or scaring them. Indian embassies in France, Italy, Spain and Portugal have also sent out public notices against such hoax calls and asked their people to be vigilant and not to disclose any of their details.
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The most disturbing detail has come, that these hoax callers have been using the Embassy’s landline numbers and thus an official has released a statement, “The high commission in Ottawa has taken up the matter with the Canadian government and we too have put out a public notice,”
“It has come to the notice of the mission that its telephone number [613-7443751] is being misused for calling people regarding nationality, passport matters, tax and money-related issues,” the embassy notice said, warning such issue “should be immediately reported to police.”
There are currently over 1.2 million Persons of Indian Origin (PIO) holders in Canada with over 90% living in the metropolitan areas and bigger cities bordering US mainline.
Indian Missions in other countries have also issued similar notices; “Beware of fraudulent/hoax calls purportedly from telephone number 0140505070/71 belonging to Indian embassy asking for Indian students/diaspora to the transfer of money”, embassy of India never asks for such transfers”, said the warning issued by the embassy in France. The mainland France is a home to around 106,000 Indians, including NRI’s and non-immigrant workers.
