The electricity bill fraud is turning huge and seems to have acquired alarming proportions. A 32-year-old woman from Bhayandar became the latest target after she lost Rs. 90,000 to the evil designs of cyber criminals. In her statement to the police, the complainant said that her brother who runs a mobile phone shop had received a message on his WhatsApp number tagged with a warning that the electricity bill was unpaid and that supply would be disconnected tonight.
The message also informed the victim to contact a certain mobile number.
The woman immediately cleared the bill and shared the screenshot of the receipt. However, the complainant immediately received a call from a person who introduced himself as the representative of the power supply company. Claiming that the payment was not updated in the system, the caller asked the complainant to download the TeamViewer QuickSupport app and fill a form to update the payment details and avoid disconnection of the electricity connection.
After making the complainant install the app, the fraudster remotely accessed her account by obtaining sensitive bank details and siphoned off Rs.90,000 from her account via three fraudulent transactions.
An offence under the relevant sections of the IPC and the Information Technology Act has been registered against the yet-to-be-identified cyber crook at the Navghar police station in Bhayandar.
The Mira Bhayandar-Vasai Virar (MBVV) police have urged people to be vigilant and check with power companies before calling numbers provided in such messages. A paint shop owner from Bhayandar had lost Rs. 1.5 lakh to a similar fraud last week.
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