Government denounced attempted fraud in the supply of agricultural supplies in Colombia

This Tuesday, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development denounced impersonations, through emails and fraudulent calls, that are being made on behalf of the agricultural portfolio.

During the communications they are offering contracts for the supply of air conditioning and audiovisual equipment (televisions), as well as the purchase of agricultural products, intended for programs to support educational institutions.

The Ministry warns citizens not to be deceived, since unscrupulous people are using false documents and deceptively mentioning officials of the entity, who have not participated in the preparation of these documents.

In addition, it invites anyone who is aware of any anomalies in this regard to submit their complaint to the competent authorities. And they emphasize that this has happened specifically in the departments of Antioquia, Cesar, Huila and Tolima through email: contratos@minagriculturagov.co and telephone numbers: 580 0982 and 321 4416829, which do not belong to this ministerial body.

Minagricultura clarified that it does not make requests for products, or purchases by e-mail or direct calls to citizens, nor does it request equipment or agricultural products or award supply contracts in this way.

It also indicated that, as regards the persons who committed these fraudulent acts on behalf of the entity, the Ministry of Agriculture reported that it has taken appropriate legal action to find those responsible.

The entity called on all citizens to report any irregularities to the competent authorities such as the Attorney General's Office in their regions. In addition, if you have any questions, consult the Minagración citizen service mail: atencionalciudadano@minagricultura.gov.co, at the telephone number: 60 (1) 254 33 00 or the toll-free line: 01-8000-510050.

It also reiterates that the services and institutional offer of the ministry and its entities are free of charge and do not require any intermediary.

It is noteworthy that, a few days ago, a similar case arose, but what they tried to do in this case was to attack the page of the Registrar's Office, which was down by a cyber attack. It is that apparently there was an irregular entry on the page, which would have been what collapsed the system and had it out of service. There were also attacks against applications of the National Electoral Council (CNE).

“About 400,000 attacks, which is within the normal average number of attacks on a page of this style, but the important thing is that the pages have not been dropped and we are ensuring the cybersecurity and protection of our Registry pages,” said the National Registrar, Alexander Vega.

Another event similar to that of Minagriculture, was denounced in 2021 by the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism (MinCIT) and Social Prosperity, which detected people who were posing as officials of the entity to offer services to some companies in exchange for financial contributions. In addition to sending emails and making calls to provide access to programs and solicit financial contributions to support other companies.

At that time, the entity revealed that these unscrupulous people, through websites, WhatsApp channels and even social media profiles, promised to register families to receive the economic incentive of the Solidarity Income program.

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