Warning issued over fake warning

| 21/10/2019 | 8 Comments

(CNS) Government officials from several different agencies have issued a warning to the public about a fake warning circulating on WhatsApp claiming that people were being robbed by people posing as census surveyors with fake IDs. The finance and home affairs ministries and the police said the hoax warning circulating on WhatsApp was entirely unsubstantiated and there had been no reports of any robbery victims.

A virtually identical scam has been circulating internationally via mobile and social media for several years, officials said, adding that this hoax scam warning has surfaced again last month.

The public is being urged not to continue circulating the fake warning and said the RCIPS Financial Crimes Unit will issue formal notices whenever a real scam or crime concern emerges.

The Economics and Statistics Office (ESO) is, however, currently conducting a pilot census in tandem with the Fall Labour Force Survey. Field surveyors carry multiple forms of official identification from ESO and have no need to see identification of those asked to take part.

Anyone with concerns about the identity of someone who approaches their door should request identification and, if needed, contact their local police station. As always, people should contact 911 if they feel they are in immediate danger. Anyone with questions about the pre-census surveys can contact the ESO hotline at 516-3329.


Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Tags: ,

Category: Crime, Police

Comments (8)

Trackback URL | Comments RSS Feed

  1. Anonymous says:

    I am warning everyone to beware of warnings over fake warnings. Just because you are paranoid doesn’t mean they’re not after you.

  2. Anonymous says:

    People need to understand that they should check on such claims before perpetuating them.

    2
    1
  3. Anonymous says:

    Moral – don’t use WhatsApp? Personally I avoid everything like this because it’s all a playground for scammers.

    2
    2
  4. Anonymous says:

    Still not opening my door to anyone unless I’m expecting them.

    6
    1
  5. Anonymous says:

    But have you considered that the warning about the fake warning might also be fake, after all we have a lot of fake people in government. The census might also be fake, maybe this post is fake too!

    8
    8

Leave a Reply to Anonymous Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.