Police have cautioned residents against the fraudulent text messages regarding unpaid power bills, with yet another resident falling prey to the scam.
The latest FIR has been registered on the complaint of a Sector-47 resident who lost ₹1.3 lakh to online fraudsters posing as electricity department staff.
The complainant, Balwinder Kaur, told the police that she got a text message on her mobile phone on August 23, informing that their electricity connection will be disconnected if the bill was not paid soon. When she called the phone number mentioned in the message, no one answered.
Later, she got a call back and the caller, who identified himself as Mukesh Sharma from electricity department, asked her to click on a link shared by him. He asked her to pay a nominal fee and took her debit card details for it. Subsequently, ₹1.3 lakh were withdrawn from her and her husband’s accounts through multiple transactions.
On her complaint, police have registered a case of cheating and criminal conspiracy at the Cyber Crime police station. On September 7, two city residents had reported similar fraudulent withdrawals from their accounts, causing them a loss of nearly ₹13 lakh.
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