The world has been fighting against the wrath of Covid-19 and is struggling to get free from the clutch of the same. After a whole year’s hardship and losing a major part of population, different countries have finally come up with the solution i.e. the vaccine for this deadly virus. The vaccination drive in India began on January 16, starting with healthcare staff and now dovetailing into the phase where other frontline staff are being inoculated. The process of vaccination has started and has received a lot of positive response. Meanwhile, A fake website impersonating the official website of the ministry of health and family welfare claiming to offer vaccines against Covid-19 has come to the notice of the ministry and it has been immediately blocked to stop the spread of misinformation regarding India’s vaccination process. The fake website replicated the health ministry’s Covid-19 dashboard and introduced a fraudulent link asking users to click for ‘appointment for vaccination’. The website also reportedly mentioned a price between ₹4,000 and ₹6,000. The ministry has clearly mentioned that Arogya Setu and Co-Win are the only website and app for the registration for the vaccination. Before the Co-WIN app was launched, fraudulent apps with the same name cropped up to guile people.
The ministry tweeted on its twitter handle, “Please be cautious. Do not fall prey to such fraudulent websites.” The process of vaccination will cover all the age group and hopefully we can look forward to a time when we will be able to go back to our normal selves. All the beneficiaries have been pre-registered with the Co-WIN app based on the data provided by the state governments. For the next phase where people above 50 years of age will be vaccinated, data have been sourced from local authorities and electoral rolls. But one can also self-register and this leeway is likely to be exploited by fraudsters.
