Kerala Police alert public against fake traffic challan messages; warn of online fraud

Thiruvananthapuram, Nov 14 (UNI) Kerala Police have issued a warning against a growing cyber fraud in which criminals send fake traffic violation messages, impersonating the Motor Vehicles Department, to trick vehicle owners into parting with their financial details. The fraudulent SMS messages claim that a traffic violation has been captured by a CCTV camera and direct recipients to pay the penalty by clicking on an embedded link. To make the messages appear genuine, fraudsters often include the recipients' actual vehicle registration numbers along with fabricated reference numbers and shortened web links. Police said the links redirect users to fake websites…