Fake government purchase order on GeM demands certification fees before releasing the contract
Fraudsters use AI-generated government IDs, fake GeM purchase orders, and spoofed official email accounts to pose as procurement officers. They demand 'mandatory' fees for ZED, NSIC, or CPCP certifications — then vanish.
Also known as: fake GeM tender fraud, AI government tender scam, fake government purchase order scam, ZED certification fee fraud, NSIC certificate scam India, fake Civil Hospital supply tender
Already happened to you? Do this in the next few minutes
Call 1930 now- 1 Call 1930 — the national cyber-crime helpline — right now. The sooner you report, the better the chance of freezing the money before it moves.
- 2 Call your bank to freeze the account and block the card immediately. Use the number printed on your card, never a number from the message or caller.
- 3 File a report at cybercrime.gov.in and keep every message, screenshot, and transaction ID.
What to do right now
- 1 Verify any government purchase order directly on the official GeM portal (gem.gov.in) — all legitimate central and state government procurement is listed there and requires the vendor to apply, not to be called
- 2 Check the official website of the department concerned (e.g. hospital.nic.in, amc.gov.in) and call their published number — never the number the caller gave you
- 3 No government procurement process requires you to pay for certifications to a private UPI account before releasing a PO — this payment demand is the scam
- 4 Independently verify the caller's identity by calling the issuing department on a number from their official '.gov.in' or '.nic.in' website
- 5 If you have already paid fees, contact your bank immediately to dispute the transfer and call 1930 to file a cybercrime complaint
- 6 Report at https://cybercrime.gov.in or call 1930 (national cyber helpline).
Red flags
- ⚠ A government department contacts you out of nowhere about a supply order — real GeM tenders are publicly listed on gem.gov.in and require the vendor to bid, not the buyer to cold-call
- ⚠ You are asked to pay for ZED, NSIC, CPCP, OEM, or any 'mandatory' certification as a prerequisite to releasing the purchase order — real government procurement never works this way
- ⚠ The official sends documents via WhatsApp or personal Gmail and conducts 'verification' via Google Meet instead of official channels
- ⚠ AI-generated identity cards and letterheads look convincing but the government email domain ends in gmail.com, hotmail.com, or a near-miss like 'amc.civil-hospital.in' instead of '.nic.in' or '.gov.in'
- ⚠ After each fee payment, a new mandatory charge appears — GST, security deposit, FEMA clearance — until the victim stops paying