A 99-year-old former businessman living in Juhu with his wife, son and daughter-in-law, reported a significant financial loss due to an online electricity bill fraud. Ashokkumar Agrawal filed a case against an unidentified individual for alleged cheating at the Juhu police station on Saturday.
Details of case
According to the police report, Agrawal received a message from an unknown number on March 10 at 3.30pm, stating that he had not paid his electricity bill and that his connection would be cut off around 9.30pm if he failed to do so. Believing the message to be from Tata Electricity, Agrawal contacted the number.
Despite informing the person on the other end that he had already paid the bill, Agrawal was told that the payment was not updated in the system. The fraudster then requested his credit card details and PAN card for rectification, which Agrawal unwittingly provided.
FPJ Cyber Secure |
As a result, Agrawal received messages indicating that Rs2.78 lakh had been debited from his HSBC account. Seeking assistance, Agrawal approached the Juhu police, who promptly engaged their cyber wing and contacted the bank’s nodal officer to freeze the account to which the funds were transferred.
On March 16, Agrawal filed a case against the unidentified individual under Sections 419 (cheating) and 420 (cheating and dishonesty) of the Indian Penal Code, along with sections of the Information Technology Act.
