Kerala: Lookalike portals fleece passport applicants

A host of private passport service portals continue to fleece passport applicants despite a warning by the Ministry of External Affairs. The similarity of the website address (URL) and formats with government portals is said to be the reason for well-educated persons falling prey to it.

A college lecturer in Kerala, who recently fell trap to one such portal and lost Rs 4,000, has taken up the matter with the MoE, seeking action to block such sites.

Officials of MoE said that ignorance among people that websites with URL ending in ‘gov.in’ were only genuine ones of the government was the reason why many fall into such traps.