The incidents of cyber crime in India are increasing day by day. According to the NCRB, 4,047 cases of online banking frauds, 2,160 cases of ATM frauds, 1,194 cases of credit/debit card frauds and 1,093 OTP frauds were registered in India. Now, another scam has come to the fore which has tricked hundreds of people across the country till now. In electricity bill scam, scammers send SMSs to people with a link and asking users to pay their electricity bill by clicking on the link.
Electricity Bill Scam : People getting scam from months
This electricity bill fraud has been going on for the last several months, and scammers have managed to vacate the bank accounts of many users.
A recent report suggests that cyber crime authorities have arrested the people behind the scam from a district in Jharkhand.
But that does not mean that such incidents cannot happen again. You should never click on links sent through text messages or WhatsApp.
According to cybercrime officials, the electricity bill scam was going on from Jamtara in Jharkhand.
- These scammers hacked people’s phones with a text message. They send a SMS saying that your electricity bill is pending. You need to clear it immediately.
- The gang is said to have first approached SIM card vendors to procure bulk SIM cards to send scanned messages to people. These scammers then created a bank account to receive the fake money. Subsequently, they sent messages to people to pay their pending electricity bills.
- Here is the message sent by scammers:
“Dear consumer, your electricity will be switched off tonight as your last month’s bill was not updated. Please click on the following link to pay the bill.”
Electricity Bill Scam : Number or link available in SMS
- If the victim clicks on the link provided in the SMS, they are directed to either a telecaller or a website, where they are asked to pay their pending electricity bill.
- People unaware of the scam often entered their bank account details and the money was directly debited from the account. In most cases, these telecallers often masquerade as BSES officials and ask for bank account details.
- Delhi Police revealed that more than a thousand complaints related to electricity bill scam have been registered across the country.
- As per the recent reports, the Cyber Crime Unit of Delhi Police has arrested 65 people for allegedly duping people with this electricity bill scam.
- It is being told that most of such scam incidents happened from Jharkhand, West Bengal, Rajasthan and Jamtara in Madhya Pradesh. Significantly, the Jamtara gang is known for duping people through various means.
