Thane: 60-Year-Old Businessman Loses ₹14 Lakh To Scammer In Electricity Bill Fraud In Kalyan

Thane: A 60-year-old businessman has lost Rs 14.80 lakh to scammers in an electricity bill fraud case. The victim had received a text message informing him that his "electricity bill" had been unpaid. The scammers then induced the victim to download a remote access app on his phone and siphoned the money from his bank account.

According to the police, the victim is a resident of Kalyan. On April 06, the victim had received a text message on his phone informing that his electricity bill had been unpaid. The message also contained a "customer care" number and instructed the victim to call on the said number for further process.

The scammer then asked the victim to download a remote access app on his phone and also shared a link on which the victim was asked to share his bank account details. Once the victim followed these instructions, he started receiving OTPs on his phone and by the time the victim reached the bank, he received at least ten OTPs on his phone.

He then got his bank account blocked and on checking his bank statement he learnt that unknown scammers had siphoned Rs 14.80 lakh from his bank account in ten different transactions. The victim then approached the police and got an offence registered in the matter and provided the mobile numbers used by scammers and fraudulent transaction details to the victims. The police have registered a case under section 66D (cheating by personation by using computer resource) of the Information Technology Act.

"Avoid sharing your phone number unless you know the person or organisation well. Avoid downloading software from unofficial sources and remove non-essential applications from the phone. Avoid providing personal or financial information in response to the unsolicited text or at a website linked to the message. Avoid clicking on links in suspicious text; they could install malware on the device or could lead to a site that does the same," said a police officer.