Fake power bill scam: Man loses nearly Rs 2L

Bhopal: Bhopal: A 40-year-old man from Misrod lost nearly Rs 1.9 lakh after cyber fraudsters allegedly posed as electricity department officials and tricked him into sharing access to his mobile phone on the pretext of updating his power bill.

Misrod police on Monday registered a case of cheating and cyber fraud.

According to police, complainant Madhup Kumar Singh, a resident of Sagar Royal Villas in Misrod, received a WhatsApp message on May 7 from an unknown number claiming to be from electricity department. The message warned that his electricity connection would be disconnected if his bill details were not updated and asked him to contact another mobile number for assistance.

Police said Singh called the number mentioned in the message. The caller allegedly provided details related to his electricity account and previous bill payments, convincing him that he was speaking to a genuine electricity department representative.

Shortly afterwards, Singh’s mobile phone allegedly became inaccessible and he was unable to operate it. Within minutes, he received alerts that Rs 22,935 had been debited from his bank account and another Rs 1.66 lakh had been spent through his credit card. Police suspect that the fraudsters gained remote access to the victim’s mobile phone during the interaction and used it to carry out unauthorised banking transactions.