Muscat

Indians in the Arab nation of Oman are falling victim to scams, leading the country's embassy to issue a warning.

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Calls are being made from telephone numbers pretending to be from the embassy. The callers assure resolution of issues related to passports and immigration, in return for money.

The embassy advisory this week asked Indians to be cautious about such suspicious calls.

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“Attention Indian nationals in Oman: Beware of calls from spoofed numbers claiming to be from the Embassy,” the embassy said in a notice, which was also posted on its X account.

Indians have reported getting such calls, from numbers such as +180071234.

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"All Indian nationals are advised that 80071234 is the 24/7 toll-free helpline number for the Community Welfare Wing of the Embassy and is not used for outgoing calls. Any calls from the spoofed number +180071234 are fraudulent,” said the advisory.

"If you receive a suspicious call, please verify the information directly with the Embassy using the official helpline".

Here is the advisory:

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The Oman government has been fighting online and telephone scams. Those who have been victims of such scams can also report to Oman Police emergency helpline at 9999, the Royal Oman Police's Cyber Extortion hotline at 80077444 or send an email to [email protected].

This is not the first time that fraudsters pretending to be from the Indian embassy made calls to Indian expatriates, asking for personal information and offering help on various issues in return for payments.

Last June, the embassy issued a similar notice, asking Indians not to entertain calls that "falsely claim association with the embassy and ask for payments related to alleged documentation problems."

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The Muscat Daily cited an Indian who got one such call, who said the caller "asked for my passport details and requested an update. He said that because of the summers, facilities were now available to update the details online for a fee."

(With inputs from agencies)