Post of Dhoni seeking money is scam: DoT

New Delhi, April 26

The Department of Telecom (DoT), on Friday, warned citizens from falling into a trap of scamsters, who are using pictures of cricketer MS Dhoni to con people on social media apps.

The DoT in a post on X alerted that scamsters are posing as the popular former Indian cricket team captain and asking for money on Instagram.

The DoT shared a screenshot of the Instagram message that said “Hi, I am MS Dhoni, messaging you from my private account. I am currently in the outskirts of Ranchi and I have forgotten my wallet. Could you please transfer Rs 600 via PhonePe so I can return home by bus? I will send the money back once I am home”. The message also included Dhoni’s ‘selfie’ for ‘proof’.

The DoT went on to use cricketing terminology to warn people “Beware of scammers trying to bowl you out! If anyone claims to be the legendary @msdhoni seeking bus tickets, it’s a googly you don’t want to catch”.

“Report them faster than @msdhoni’s stumpings on Chakshu at #SancharSaathi,” it added.

DoT’s Sanchar Saathi portal is a web portal aimed to help Indian mobile users track and block lost smartphones and identity theft, forged KYC using the CEIR module.