Fake PM CARES Links Being Used to Dupe People, Maharashtra Cyber Police Officials Say

Fraudsters are using fake links to dupe people in the name of online coronavirus donations to the
Prime Minister''s Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund, also known as PM CARES Fund, Maharashtra Cyber police officials said on Saturday.

They said several such fake PM CARES links have been traced and disabled. Officials asked people to use the authentic link which is pmcares@sbi to donate funds to fight the virus outbreak.

Officials said Maharashtra Cyber police has registered 78 cases during the lockdown for online misinformation on the coronavirus outbreak.

These include eight in Mumbai, six each in Pune Rural and Satara district, five each in Beed and Nashik Rural, four each in Nagpur, Nashik city, Thane and Kolhapur, an official said.

In one case in Malegaon in Nashik, an offence was registered and three people arrested for making a TikTok video with a communal angle to the outbreak.

In Mumbai, two persons were booked for a communal post on Facebook, while in Dongri in the south of the metropolis, some people gathered in violation of lockdown orders after a fake news was circulated through WhatsApp, he said.