Ongole: Conmen use volunteers data to cheat public

Ongole: Making use of the details of the ward and village volunteers available on the government websites, few tricksters found a way to cheat people in the guise of providing welfare schemes to them.

An incident of cheating took place in the State, warns the volunteers to be careful and authorities to restrict access to important data on government websites.

On April 1, a volunteer Anumula Mahadev, working in Vinukonda received a phone call from phone number 9718449662 and the caller claimed that he was calling from the Chief Minister's secretariat at Velagapudi. He quoted the CFMS ID, Aadhaar number and secretariat details of the volunteer for confirmation that he is a real officer, and questioned him about the implementation of welfare schemes and inquired on why few applicants were denied the benefits.

He collected the names and phone numbers of few people and dialed them keeping the volunteer on hold. He informed the beneficiaries that the Chief Minister wanted to provide the fruits of development to all, and assured them that they would get the money transferred to their accounts if they could provide the required documents to volunteers. He made the volunteer explain the list of documents required for the concerned scheme and held him again on the call and interacted with the beneficiaries again.

He told them that their application would be approved immediately, and asked them to provide their bank account details, debit card number along with the CVV code and collected the OTP received on their mobile number to transfer the amount.

The caller collected the debit card details and OTP from two persons, promising the deposit of Amma Vodi and Cheyutha scheme benefits, by keeping the volunteer on hold, and withdrawn Rs 8,000 and Rs 5,000 from their accounts, the maximum amount he could loot from them.

After learning about the cheating, the locals blamed the volunteer and demanded him to repay the money as they shared the confidential data with confidence on him. The worried volunteer shared the whole story on the WhatsApp and Telegram groups of the volunteers and alerted them to be vigilant. He brought the issue to the notice of the Municipal Commissioner, B Srinivasulu and made a complaint with him. The Commissioner and the volunteer reported to the Vinukonda police on Saturday, requesting a thorough enquiry on the issue.

Responding to the incident shared on WhatsApp and Telegram, many volunteers blamed the government for leaking their information. A volunteer in Ongole said that the caller might have got the details of their CFMS ID, secretariat cluster, mobile number and other info from the government websites.

He said that they were doing a lot of work for the public for a nominal honorarium, and they cannot afford to repay the money to the public if miscreants use their information for cheating. He demanded the government to restrict access to their data, such as CFMS ID, Aadhaar number, secretariat details, just as the authorities prohibiting access to the permanent government employees and save them from beating by the public.