An elderly Salt Lake resident was duped out of more than Rs 1 lakh after he responded to a text message threatening to disconnect the power supply to his house in EE Block if he did not clear his dues.
Dhritish Chandra Dhar, 78, had received a text message that addressed him as “Dear customer” and said his supply would be snapped at 8.30pm.
The message also gave the number of an “electricity officer” whom he had to call.
Alarmed by the message, Dhar called the number and the person who received it identified himself as an “electric supply official”, Dhar’s son Chayan told The Telegraph on Friday.
According to him, his father was then asked to click on a link that he received in another text message and told to make the payment for the “outstanding electricity dues” for their house.
“I did what the caller at the other end of the line asked me to do thinking that he was an electricity department official. Once I clicked on the link he asked me to put in my banking details and make the payment. I did that,” said Dhar.
No sooner than Dhar clicked on the link Rs 1.16 lakh was out of his account.
“I only came to know after getting four transaction alerts on my cellphone,” said Dhar. A day later, more than Rs 3,000 was transferred again.
Electricity bill frauds have turned out to be one of the most reported cyber crimes in the city where many consumers are tech-challenged elderly people.
The power utilities and the police have repeatedly warned people about the possible trap but, evidently, more needs to be done.
The power utilities in Kolkata and the rest of Bengal have said time and again that connections are not snapped by a text alert or at such short notice.
The messages have not reached many like Dhar.
Realising that he had been duped, Dhar told his son. They lodged a complaint at Salt Lake cyber crime police station.
An officer of Bidhannagar commissionerate that they keep getting such complaints from time to time.
A senior officer of Bidhannagar police commissionerate said: “Like the message the elderly gentleman had received, such messages will have a lot of errors. Moreover, the helpline number and the numbers given out in these messages are bound to differ. These two are the easiest pointers to determine that the message is fake. So, none of the electric supply companies provide such short notice or specify a time when the connection will get snapped.”