Mumbai: A 52-year-old Central Railway (CR) employee recently fell prey to scammers and lost Rs 2.89 lakh in power bill fraud. According to the police, the victim, a resident of Badhwar Park in Colaba, on May 18 received a WhatsApp message from an unknown number.
The message stated that the gas connection of her residence would be disconnected because her previous month's bill was not updated. The message also asked the victim to contact immediately a number given in the message.
The message also contained a link asking the victim to click the link and download a file. The victim followed the instructions and filled out a form that opened through the file and then made a transaction of Rs 2,000 as instructed in the message.
The victim then realised that Rs 2.89 lakh had been deducted from her account. The victim also received a phone call from her bank asking if the transactions were made by her. She informed the bank official that she had not made those transactions and got her bank card blocked.
She then approached the police and got an offence registered in the matter. The police have registered a case under sections 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention), 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) of the Indian Penal Code and 66C (identity theft), 66D (cheating by personation by using computer resource) of the Information Technology Act.
