Meghalaya police have issued a warning over impersonation used in a type of cybercrime.
Cybercriminals are fraudulently posing as senior government officials, including police.
Messages purporting to be from official sources claim that the recipient has been involved in certain criminal activities and the scammers then try to get the victim to reveal personal information and ultimately pay money to settle the fake cases.
Another type of crime involves impersonating senior ministers of officials and targetting those of lower rank. The scammer then requests the junior individual to send money or gift cards on the pretext that the more senior individual is too busy.
Police have advised the public to be cautious and verify the identity of those they receive messages from before parting with money or information. If using WhatsApp, the public have been told not to save the unknown numbers to their phones and activate the “Silence unknown callers” setting.
Suspicious activity can be reported through the helpline (1930) or via cybercrime.gov.in.