Palamu: Beneficiaries of the PM Kisan Samman Nidhi are falling prey to cyber fraud with their phones being hacked into and money being debited in huge amounts. In the last 15 days, as many as five official complainants have been filed against the central scheme at the Palamu Cyber Police Station.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi released the 17th installment of PM Kisan Samman Nidhi benefits to the beneficiary farmers in Varanasi during his one-day visit. Under the Scheme, a direct payment of Rs. 6000 per year is set to be transferred in three equal installments of Rs. 2000 every four months into the bank accounts of eligible landholding families.
Several beneficiaries who had gone to the official website of the scheme: https://pmkisan.gov.in/ for a detailed briefing on the scheme alleged foul play, as they claimed that an unknown app had been automatically installed on their phones thereafter.
Within minutes of that app being downloaded, lumpsum amount of money was debited, leaving their bank accounts empty. Some of them even received calls from cyber criminals, they said.
What is PM Kisan? The Government of India launched a new Central Sector Scheme, “Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN)” with a mission to hike the income of the Small and Marginal Farmers (SMFs).
Ajit Kumar Tiwari, Assistant Information and Public Relations Officer posted in Palamu faced similar harassment when he went online to check the details of the Central scheme. He suddenly found out the unknown app installed on his phone and Rs 30,000 vanish within seconds.
Kamlesh Kumar, living on the Patan Chhatarpur border was a beneficiary of the scheme. He too fell prey to cyber fraud and was duped of a whopping Rs 1.30 lakh in a similar fashion.
As per cyber police, criminals are using an OTP after hacking into the beneficiaries' phones and debiting the money. Rishma Rameshan, Superintendent of police (SP), Palamu said, "There are several fake websites that have been especially created for such kind of illegal bank transactions. The public has to be aware about them. We are trying out best as well."
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