INDIANS IN UK WARNED ABOUT FRAUD CALLS FOR MONEY

LONDON: Several Indian citizens in Britain have received calls from people purporting to be from the Home Office, demanding money to deal with non-existent errors in their passports or visa papers, prompting an advisory from external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj.

After receiving tweets from affected Indians in several countries, Swaraj asked them not to worry and to report the calls to the nearest Indian mission. The Indian high commission in London too issued an advisory, asking those affected not to pay money to the callers.

More than 10 affected Indian citizens have approached the high commission, and officials said they were aware of at least 25 such cases . These cases emerged recently, but similar calls were received in previous years.

The Indian mission’s advisory states: “A number of incidents have come to the attention of the High Commission involving fraudsters having telephonically cheated some Indian nationals by posing as officers from UK Home Office/ UK immigration/ UKBA.

“These fraudsters extort money from Indian nationals, claiming that mistakes were noticed in their passports, visa forms, immigration forms etc and that they should deposit money (as demanded by these fraudsters) to have these mistakes rectified or else they will be deported or imprisoned in UK.”

In some cases, the callers falsely claimed they had information from the high commission or authorities in India or the British high commission in New Delhi. “This is to clarify that the High Commission does not send any such notifications to UK authorities. If there is any issue, the High Commission contacts the concerned Indian national, directly using the official email ID of the High Commission ending with @hcilondon.in,” it said.