Indore (Madhya Pradesh): An alert consumer foiled a cyber fraud attempt made in the name of Madhya Pradesh West Zone Electricity Distribution Company. As per reports, late Wednesday night a fake email in the name of the West Discom was sent to a high tension consumer.
The email, which was received around 11:45 PM, contained the consumer’s details along with fraudulent bank information, urging him to deposit the electricity bill. To make the email appear legitimate, the sender had even mentioned the name of an accountant.
However, the alert consumer Antar Singh made no payment.
Instead, he contacted the company’s High Tension Billing Cell on Thursday morning for verification and found that the email was fake. After investigation, the electricity company confirmed that the email was fraudulent and that no such request had been made.
Following this, senior officials of the West Discom lodged a complaint with the cybercrime branch, seeking action against the perpetrators. The company has also issued a fresh advisory, urging all consumers to remain cautious of such fraudulent emails and calls.
Discom cautions consumers
The electricity company clarified that it never asked consumers to deposit their bill amount into any specific account via email or phone calls. Bills should only be paid through official methods such as online payments via Paytm, PhonePe, Google Pay, RTGS to the official electricity company account, account payee cheques or payments at authorised bill counters (with receipts issued).
