Govt cautions public not to fall for fake SMSs promising jobs in its name

The National Informatics Centre (NIC) has cautioned the general public not to fall for fake SMSs promising jobs in its name and report such messages immediately.

NIC probed a fake SMS being circulated which misused its name for a job offer, and has taken swift action to avert potential financial fraud, an official release said on Friday.

"NIC received information about a fake SMS with a job offer, masquerading in the name of NIC being circulated amongst the general public," the release said.

It has cautioned the general public not to fall for such fake SMSs and to report such messages immediately to incident@cert-in.Org.In and https://cybercrime.Gov.In.

The NIC team, on receiving the information about the fake SMS, swung into action, carried out an immediate internal investigation and identified that the fake SMS was not sent from its infrastructure.

"NIC team swiftly coordinated with telecom service providers to investigate and identified that the fake SMS had been sent through a private SMS service provider's infrastructure," the release said.

Given that the fake SMS was misusing its name, amounted to a cyber incident and could also involve a potential financial fraud, NIC promptly reported the incident to CERT-In (Indian Computer Emergency Response Team) and also registered a complaint with law enforcement agencies for identifying and prosecuting the perpetrators of the said SMS.

"In order to prevent further misuse, Cert-In immediately coordinated with the concerned intermediary for the take down of the fraudulent URL," the release said.

NIC is the technology partner of the Government of India. NIC was established in 1976 with the mission to provide technology-driven solutions to Central and State Governments.