Covid Booster Scam! You Can Lose Money By 'Booking' Booster Shot to Fight Omicron; How to Stay Safe

With the sudden increase in covid cases in India due to the new Omicron variant, which is spreading rapidly, citizens are now interested in receiving a third vaccine or a booster shot to build immunity in their bodies to fight disease. But scammers are taking advantage of the Omicron scare and found a new way to mint money by "helping" people get a booster shot.

What is the new Covid vaccine scam about?

Scammers posing as government health officials are calling gullible citizens to reserve their booster shot. The scammers primarily target seniors and other people who are eligible. Interestingly, scammers are well prepared to mislead people. Speaking about the modus operandi, a person who complains from the health department will call an elderly person and ask for personal details such as details of the vaccine dose of the first and second injection along with the address, mobile phone number and others. details.

Then after a few days, another call is made from another person claiming to be from the health department to help the person book a booster shot. To make the call appear original, the personal data is confirmed and the scammer convinces the person that they will receive a message on their phone number registered with an OTP. Then she will ask the OTP to confirm the reservation for the booster injection. In other cases, the caller may also ask the victim to download a particular app on her phone, which is mostly remote desktop apps like AnyDesk or TeamViewer, to help them with the booking process.

Now the problem is that OTP is mainly generated for UPI's money request function or it is also observed that the scammer already has the victim's bank details in their database. If they do not have the bank details, they can request the bank details and OTP to make the payment and reserve the space online. The OTP is simply asked to transfer money from the victim's bank accounts, either through UPI or Internet banking.

The scammers are targeting people in rural areas or older citizens who may not know how UPI, remote desktop applications, or Internet banking works. A compelling story is told just to get the OTP for wire transfer.

How to stay safe from these scams

Always keep in mind is that government officials will never call anyone to reserve vaccine slots. In fact, the provision to register via phone call does not exist. The only way to book a Covid vaccine is through the CoWIN platform. You can use the CoWIN desktop website or the Aarogya Setu app. Alternatively, you can directly visit any vaccine centre to register and get a vaccination.

As far as the OTP is concerned, no government official will ask any OTP to reserve a space for the vaccine. Also, all OTPs must be kept secret and must not be shared with anyone.