EMN
Dimapur, March 14
The Customs division of Guwahati has issued a public notice cautioning citizens about fraudsters who allegedly dupe people of money by telling them to deposit money or make payments for goods the latter supposedly would receive.
Deputy Commissioner of Guwahati Customs Division Deputy Commissioner Temsunaro Jamir issued a notice on Friday, March 14, explaining why people should not entertain any claims or offers by people impersonating customs officials.
The Customs division of Guwahati is said to have received reports about people in Guwahati in Assam, Shillong in Meghalaya and Kohima and Dimapur in Nagaland who were allegedly duped by the conmen. ‘Certain unscrupulous elements” and possibly even members of organized crime syndicates have been duping and cheating ordinary citizens by impersonating customs officers, the customs division stated.
“(The conmen are) swindling large sums of money from unsuspecting people. It has been noticed that these criminals have a countrywide network and have spread their tentacles deep into the telecom subscriber database and even have found their out in evading checks maintained by the country’s banking system,” Deputy Commissioner Temsunaro Jamir said.
The department said that the fraudsters contact unsuspecting individuals, informing them of the purported arrival of supposedly lucrative consignments from abroad. The conmen give the impression that the supposed goods were sent by persons the targeted individual befriended on social networking sites such as Facebook. “These calls are usually made from unlisted mobile telephone numbers. The target person is then asked to deposit a certain amount of money for clearance of Customs duty. For deposit of customs duty, the person to whom the call is made is provided with a bank account number which invariably belongs to a private individual,” the notice explained.
The customs department has made clear that neither the department nor any of its officers make unsolicited calls to anybody for the depositing customs duty. “It is also notified that customs duty, if any, is always deposited in a government account and can be deposited only in designated banks. The members of the public are cautioned and advised to desist from making any such payments in the name of customs duty. It is also advised that whenever any such calls are received, the matter should be immediately reported to the nearest police station, the customs department said.
