If you are willing to apply for an Indian passport, then you may be aware of fake passport websites and portals. The Ministry of External Affairs has warned Indian citizens to be cautious of fraudulent mobile application and websites for passport applications. The Indian government has alerted its citizens through the official Passport Seva portal about the frauds taking place nowadays.
What Ministry of External Affairs Say?
The Ministry of External Affairs has warned when you open, you will see a notification that warns you that you are logging into the fake portals. These websites and/or applications take the information and other details of the candidates applying for the passport. In addition to this, they also charge additional hefty charges for scheduling appointments and filling online application.
Therefore, the government has identified certain fake websites having *.com, *.org* as their domain name. The External Affairs Ministry has also provided lists of fake websites likewww.passportseva.in; www.passportindiaportal.in; www.applypassport.org; www.onlinepassportindia.com; www.passport-india.in; and www.indiapassport.org; or other fake websites.
Prof Triveni Singh IPS, SP, Azamgarh and a top Cyber Crime cop, in a post on social media platform LinkedIn, advised its citizens looking to apply or need any sort of passport-related services should avoid such websites. Also, avoid entering any sort of personal or account-related information on these websites. The Ministry of External Affairs said, we only operate through one official website (www.passportindia.gov.in) and a mobile application (mPassport Seva) to cater for all queries and passport related work. You can download the mobile application easily from iOS and Android stores.
In the meantime, several online cases have registered in regards to such scams, yet, the Ministry of External Affairs does not have any specific applicant details or number using these fake websites.
