Traffic police in Srinagar on Saturday issued an advisory for people in-view of fake traffic challans used by scammers to dupe people.
They said that cyber criminals utilize fake traffic e-challan messages claiming to be from local traffic police authorities.
The fake e-challans are sent on people’s mobile numbers asking them to pay for various traffic violations accompanied by a link to make online payments, said an advisory issued by police’s cyber wing.
The numbers used to send these messages usually appear to be from ‘City Control Room’ or ‘E-challan Recovery’, Police said in a communique.
These messages warn of legal action in-case of refusal or delay in paying the challan through the given link.
After a victim clicks on the link, they are directed to a fake web page similar to e-challan website. The fake page, police said, displays entry forms for challan payments and after a person enters their banking details they fall victim to fraudsters who end up stealing people’s money using the shared banking details.
The police urged people to avoid making any e-challan payment without authenticating the challan with concerned local authorities through official channels.
“Avoid clicking on any web link received through SMS without confirming the legitimacy of the given link, ” it said.
Scrutinize all the URLs before opening and filling in any information.
The advisory also asked people to avoid providing personal or banking related information in response to the unsolicited text or at a website linked to the message.
Monitor all the transactions made through personal bank accounts/wallets on a regular basis.
Traffic police also said that any such incidents should be reported on the cybercrime.gov.in portal.
