Scam alert: Fraudsters now target senior citizens with booster shots

As elderly citizens and healthcare workers line up to get their booster or precautionary Covid-19 vaccine dose amid the Omicron-driven third wave, scammers have yet again sniffed an opportunity to trick gullible people into unknowingly transferring their money.

According to multiple reports, citizens particularly in the 60-plus age group — who were eligible for booster vaccinations from January 10 — received calls from cyber criminals impersonating government/health department officals looking to help them book a slot for their booster dose.

They then either seek out personal details such as the victim's name, address, date of birth, bank details and vaccination status and also read out their vaccination dates to sound genuine.

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Most of the time, the callers already have the personal information and bank account details of the victims.

A couple of days later, the victim receives another call – from a fraudster – who then confirms the details and asks them if they wish to get a booster dose. Upon confirming the preferred date and time, they convince the victim to share the one time password (OTP) of an SMS they will receive.

The SMS, however, is actually a money transfer request sent from a digital payments/UPI app like Google Pay or PhonePe and by sharing the OTP, the victims' money is sent to the caller.

In other cases, the caller may also ask the victim to download remote desktop apps like AnyDesk or TeamViewer on their phone to aid them in the booking process, according to a News18 report.

To avoid such scams, one must know that vaccination slots can only be booked through the Co-WIN website or the Aarogya Setu app. Government officials do not call citizens for booking vaccination slots.

Additionally, it is always important to read the content of SMSes with OTPs as it shows what the code would be used for. OTPs are supposed to be secret – kept to oneself and not shared with anyone else.

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