Scams In The Name Of Indian Customs! Govt Cautions Public On Extortion Frauds

The Ministry of Finance on August 9 alerted people about scams being reported in the name of Indian Customs. It has urged to not fall prey to fraudulent calls, emails, messages and social media posts claiming to be from Indian Customs and demanding payment of customs duty in personal bank accounts.

Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs is a part of the Department of Revenue under the Ministry of Finance, Government of India.

It deals with the tasks of formulation of policy concerning levy and collection of Customs, Central Excise duties, Central Goods & Services Tax and IGST, prevention of smuggling and administration of matters to the extent under CBIC’s purview.

In a series of posts on Twitter, the ministry stated that Indian Customs never calls or send SMS for paying Customs Duty in a personal bank account. All communications from Indian Customs contain a Document Identification Number (DIN) which can be verified online on the CBIC website.

Be wary of the requests for money or favour from friends you have met online, claiming to be detained by Indian Customs. In case of such events, contact the police.

The ministry highlighted that such scams can be in the form of random lottery fraud calls, where someone may ask you to pay customs duty to claim the prize money. But, remember this is a scam message.

A scam can be performed through social media as well where you make friends online. They may ask for money claiming to be detained by Indian Customs. Again, this is a fraud.