Hyderabad: Hyderabad DCC President Syed Khalid Saifullah urged police to prevent SIR-linked fraud attempts targeting voters after draft electoral rolls were published.
The Election Commission published the draft rolls on August 17. Khalid Saifullah warned that fraudsters could use specific voter information to appear credible when contacting electors.
He said scammers might mention whether a voter’s name remained on the rolls or faced deletion. Such details could help fraudsters persuade people that calls came from an official verification process.
According to Khalid Saifullah, scammers could then seek OTPs, bank details or other confidential information. He urged Hyderabad City Police to anticipate such attempts before victims suffer financial losses.
The Hyderabad DCC president also raised concerns about personal information collected during the Special Intensive Revision exercise. He said activists from different political parties had visited households and collected details while assisting voters with enumeration forms.
Khalid Saifullah said some people had provided Aadhaar details during those interactions. He expressed concern that such information could be copied, shared or misused beyond the electoral verification process.
He said voters whose names were deleted or whose entries contained problems could face greater targeting after publication of the draft rolls. Fraudsters with specific voter information could exploit those concerns through convincing phone calls or messages.
SIR-linked fraud concerns focus on voter data security
Khalid Saifullah urged voters never to share OTPs, banking information, card details or passwords with callers claiming to represent SIR verification. He advised citizens to report suspicious calls and messages to the police immediately.
Voters should also rely only on official Election Commission channels and authorised election officials. They should use those channels to clarify issues involving inclusion, deletion or correction of electoral roll entries.
The Hyderabad DCC president called for deeper investigations into complaints involving callers who possess specific SIR-related information. He said investigators should trace how fraudsters obtained details about individual voters.
Khalid Saifullah said authorities should examine whether databases created during voter-assistance activities had reached unauthorised people. He also urged political parties and activists who collected voter information to protect it from misuse.
He asked Hyderabad City Police and cybercrime authorities to monitor complaints involving SIR, voter verification and deleted names. Authorities should look for patterns that could indicate organised misuse of voter information, he said.
Khalid Saifullah also warned voters about calls creating urgency around electoral roll corrections. He said people should remain cautious if callers demand an OTP to restore, delete or correct a name.
He urged police to combine public awareness with preventive surveillance across Hyderabad. According to him, protecting voter information should remain a key part of the post-draft SIR process.