While the entire country is trying everything possible to win the battle against Coronavirus(COVID-19) pandemic, many people are taking advantage of the situation. In one such case, people were being duped by a website that was disguised as a government website.
It has been blocked immediately to prevent the spread of misinformation about India’s vaccination process. The health ministry said that a case has been registered against the site and the investigation is in process. “Please be cautious. Do not fall prey to such fraudulent websites,” the ministry said on its official Twitter handle.
The site ‘https://t.co/l715QloBwO‘ has been blocked. A case is registered and investigation taken up.
Please be cautious. Do not fall prey to such fraudulent websites.@PMOIndia @drharshvardhan @AshwiniKChoubey @PIBFactCheck @mygovindia @DDNewslive https://t.co/g6Efori7tq— Ministry of Health (@MoHFW_INDIA) February 12, 2021
This fake website reiterates the Covid-19 dashboard of the Ministry of Health. It also contains a link. It asked users to click on ‘Appointment for vaccination’. The website was registering people for corona vaccine for Rs 4000 to Rs 6000. Apart from co-win and Arogya Setu app, there is no other website or application for vaccine registration, the ministry informed.
Fraud activities in the name of vaccination process have not been new for the authorities. As before the Co-Win app was launched, fraudulent apps of the same name misled people. The vaccination campaign in India began on January 16, in which healthcare workers and now the other frontline employees are being vaccinated. All these beneficiaries have been pre-registered with the co-win app based on data provided by the State Governments.
The health ministry said that in the next phase, people above 50 years of age are to be vaccinated.
