Fraudsters now turn to pending power bills in Hyderabad

Hyderabad: From bank account details to QR Codes, and now even power bills, cunning fraudsters are turning everything they can into fodder to swindle people of their money. Recent cases in the city show that fraudsters are contacting customers posing as employees of the Electricity Board and duping them on the pretext of clearing pending bills.

Message on mobile

A few cases of people losing their money to fraudsters have already been reported in the city prompting the Cybercrime Police to sound an alert. According to officials, initially the fraudster sends a message through SMS or WhatsApp to the mobile phone of the targeted person. When the latter responds, they introduce themselves as employees of the Electricity board and say that the customer has not paid electricity bills and that power supply will be disconnected later in the day or that night, bringing in a sense of urgency. “Fraudsters are psychologically targeting the victims first. Usually people do not give second thought to the caller nor bother to verify their antecedents because they suddenly think about the problems they might face in case power supply is disconnected. They take the calls seriously and obey the directions from the fraudsters,” a Hyderabad Cybercrimes official said.

The conmen, then, send a link to the victim, asking him or her to download an app. “Usually the fraudster asks the victim to download the Quick Support app and do a transaction of Rs 30 or Rs 50. They then inform the victim that they will call back later. As the unsuspecting victim waits, the fraudster withdraws money from the bank accounts as they would manage to gain access to the bank account login credentials of the victim,” the official said.

A man from the city recently lost Rs 8.5 lakh to fraudsters in this fashion while another victim lost Rs 1.5 lakh in the same manner.