It had come to notice by Mumbai Police that some people were posing as representatives of a pharmaceutical company named Cipla. Mumbai Police alerted the people to not fall under the cyber trap of these fake representatives and fraudsters.
Cipla, the victim pharmaceutical company has filed a formal complaint in regards to this matter.
The cyber-fraudsters pose as distributors of Cipla and share their numbers and contact info online and on social media platforms. After getting in touch with the people who need the drugs, they take an advance payment from the victims promising the availability of the drugs and once the payment is processed successfully, they break all contacts and ghost the victims after taking their money.
In a statement addressing this issue, Mumbai Police said that the Central Government and the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare/Department of Pharmaceuticals has ordered all supplies of Remdesivir and Tocilizumab in India to go only through authorized Government or Private hospitals. Individual distribution or retailing or reselling of the drug to the general public is strictly prohibited.
Furthermore they said – “Please beware of unscrupulous fraudsters (falsely claiming as Cipla authorized or a representative of the Cipla Firm) offering supply basis advance online payments. If you are approached for such a transaction, please do not transfer any funds and immediately notify your local police /cyber crime cell of such activity.”
The Police ended their statement by requesting to refrain from making unethical frauds (making false claims as a Cipla authorized or Cipla firm representative) by offering supply-based advance online payments. They appealed to the public that whenever contacted for such transactions, they should not transfer any funds and immediately notify the local police / cybercrime cell of the activity.