BENGALURU: Just days after Bengaluru traffic police issued warnings about extortion calls demanding payments over fake arrest threats, a more sophisticated scam has emerged. Fraudsters are now using Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) applications to impersonate high-ranking traffic police officials. They are extorting money from citizens by falsely claiming traffic violations and involvement in hit-and-run accidents.
Initially, police suspected that the scammers were hacking into police landline numbers to make these fraudulent calls. However, investigations revealed that the fraudsters were actually using VoIP technology to spoof official police phone numbers, targeting unsuspecting victims.
VoIP technology converts voice conversations into digital signals transmitted over the internet, eliminating the need for traditional phone lines. A senior officer explained that VoIP apps allow users to feed in any number they wish to impersonate, so when the call is made, the recipient sees the spoofed number, making it appear as if the call is from an official source.
Two separate complaints were filed at the Central CEN Crime police station on November 21 and 22. The first complaint, by Padmaja MA from the DCP traffic-East office, reported that scammers used a spoofed DCP office number (080-22860787) to target around 20 victims across Hyderabad, Sakleshpur, and Bengaluru. In the second case, similar fraud was reported using phone numbers linked to the Joint Commissioner of Traffic (080-22942276 and 080-22862222).
Authorities were alerted when victims who received these calls contacted the police. DCP (Traffic-East) Kuldeep Kumar Jain stated that while no one has yet reported losing money, the department has set up helplines and email addresses to report such incidents. He emphasized that the traffic department only communicates fines and violations through official emails, notices, or its website.
Due to the nature of VoIP, tracing these fraudulent calls is difficult, as they cannot be tracked through traditional call detail records. The police are working with VoIP service providers to track down the perpetrators by requesting information about the mobile numbers used to spoof the official numbers. Notices are being issued to the relevant VoIP apps to assist with the investigation.
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