CBI alerts fake sanitiser, online payment fraud

With fraudsters seeking to exploit the Covid-19 crisis to rake in the moolah, the CBI has issued alerts to all State/Union Territory police agencies relating to rise in online advance payment scams and use of methanol for counterfeiting hand sanitisers. The CBI alerts to the law enforcement agencies are based on Interpol inputs.

Online advance payment scams involve instances of criminals approaching as vendors of personal protection equipment (PPE) and other protective equipment suppliers related to Covid-19 pandemic and entering business transactions with clients online. After receipt of payment via bank transfers, the fraudulent vendors do not make any delivery of the committed items.

Methanol in hand sanitisers can be highly toxic and dangerous for the human body. According to the inputs from the Interpol, instances, in other countries, of use of methanol for preparing spurious hand sanitisers have come to the fore.

“Instances have been reported in other countries where due to huge demand for hand sanitisers during

Covid-19 pandemic, use of methanol was detected to produce counterfeit hand sanitisers. Methanol can be highly toxic and dangerous for the human body,” a CBI spokesperson said.

Based on inputs from Interpol, the CBI had last month alerted the States/Union Territories/Central Agencies on a threat from a malicious software that uses a banking Trojan Cerberus which deploys its app to trick users into installing it on their smartphones.

“Based on inputs received from Interpol, CBI has issued an alert relating to a banking Trojan known as Cerberus. This malicious software takes advantage of Covid-19 Pandemic to impersonate and send SMS using the lure of Covid-19 related content to download the embedded malicious link, which deploys its malicious app usually spread via phishing campaigns to trick users into installing it on their smartphones,” the CBI which is the nodal agency for Interpol in India had said last month.

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