The bill payment scam continues to haunt consumers of the Bangalore Electricity Supply Company (Bescom).
Sriram K.V., 56, a resident of Vidyaranyapura, lost ₹1.5 lakh to a man who approached him posing as Bescom staff and stole the money on July 17.
In his complaint, Sriram said that he had received a message from a person claiming to be from Bescom. The person sought an update on the bill payment. The message warned of disconnection of power supply if an update was not submitted.
Sriram contacted the person through a number mentioned in the message. The person, on the pretext of helping him make an online payment, asked Sriram to transfer ₹11 using a link that he shared.
Within a few minutes of the transactions, Sriram received a message about a transaction of ₹1.5 lakh from his bank account. Shocked, he tried to call the number, but it was not reachable.
Realising that he had been cheated, Sriram approached the North East division cyber crime police on July 18.
According to sources, in the North East division alone, there have been 10 such cases in one month.
Homemaker cheated
A similar complaint was filed by Rekha Nandakumar, a 53-year-old homemaker from Vasanthnagar, with the Central division cyber crime police on July 19.
Rekha, in her complaint, said that she received a message on her mobile phone from a person claiming to be from Bescom. The message warned of disconnection of the power supply if the bill was not paid online. The message mentioned a contact number for any assistance.
Rekha called the number. The person who answered claimed to be from Bescom. He told Rekha to download a ‘quick support app’ to make a payment of ₹10. After she followed his instructions, she learnt that a sum of ₹79,115 had been deducted from two of her savings accounts.
The cyber crime police have warned people against entertaining such messages or calls. Once the app is downloaded and some money is transferred using the app, it will copy all the confidential data of the bank accounts and enable the fraudsters to operate the account from remote locations and withdraw money.
Bescom has urged its consumers not to entertain any text regarding discontinuation of electricity supply owing to non-payment of bills. Such text messages are fake. Bescom does not send text messages to insist on payment of bills.
