British Deputy High Commission warns about visa fraudsters

The Commission has initiated a campaign to prevent people in the Telugu States from falling victim to such scams.

Hyderabad: With cyber crooks and job fraudsters exploiting every possible and available channel to trick people into parting with personal information and money, the British Deputy High Commission in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh has initiated a campaign to prevent people in the Telugu States from falling victim to such scams.

In a thread on Twitter on Wednesday, the BDHC listed tips to avoid visa scams and stressed that the UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) and visa outsourcing and technology services specialist, VFS Global, would never ask customers to share personal information via social media, and said scammers could use this for online trickery.

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Important thread on Anti-fraud!

We want to make sure you’re safe and ready to apply for your visa when you can travel.

Here are some tips to avoid visa scams #DoNotFallForFraud ⬇️

First tip: UKVI and VFS will never ask customers to share personal information via social media. pic.twitter.com/sd2uzyZt4q

— Gareth Wynn Owen (@UKinHyderabad) July 28, 2021

Pointing out that UKVI or VFS would never ask for visa payments by email or phone, the campaign says one should pay for the visa application online. If there were any suspicions or incidents, it had to be reported on the link https://actionfraud.police.uk. The public would also never be asked to make payments into a personal bank account. The UK government’s guidance page on such issues, http://GOV.UK, had all the details on this, it said.

The campaign also asks people to be aware of scammers seeking to take advantage of visa applicants by posing as UKVI or VFS employees. They may ask for money or personal details. Also, if one received an offer that is too good to be true, research had to be done without getting lured into false promises made by fraudsters. To verify whether a job or study offer received was real, there was a checklist on http://GOV.UK.

British Deputy High Commissioner (TS & AP) Andrew Fleming tweeted saying fraudsters were actively targeting unsuspecting people across the Telugu states. There would be more tweets on the topic from the BDHC’s official handle, @UKinHyderabad, he added.

This ⬇️⬇️⬇️ really matters.

Fraudsters abound and are actively targeting unsuspecting people across the Telugu states.

Please spread the word – we will be issuing more tweets on this topic from the @UKinHyderabad channel.

Please follow and please amplify. https://t.co/H6RZfOcroR

— Dr Andrew Fleming 🇬🇧 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 (@Andrew007Uk) July 28, 2021

BDHC officials said the campaign was being taken up worldwide as well.

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