VIJAYAWADA: Remember the viral electricity bill scam, where people received warnings from the scammers claiming that they would discontinue power supply if they did not pay the bill, following which the victims had lost money from their accounts? Well, the scam is back in Vijayawada and other parts of the State in recent days as such incidents were reported on Monday in West Godavari district and Vijayawada last month.
According to cybercrime police, more than 50 such complaints have been reported in various parts across the State in the last six months with the latest being in Undi Mandal of West Godavari district, where a person lost Rs 1.85 lakh to the cybercriminals.
In the latest incident, the victim K Pedda Ramakrishnam Raju, a native of Pedapulleru village of West Godavari district, received a message from an anonymous number asking him to pay the pending electricity bill for February in the month of March.
Believing that the message was from the concerned electricity department regarding his pending bill, he opened the text message and clicked on the link mentioned in the message where he was directed to an anonymous website and completed the payment.
“When he could not obtain the bill receipt after completing the payment, he contacted the number mentioned in the message, which suggested him to download a mobile app for generating the bill. Falling into the trap of the fraudsters, Ramakrishnam Raju downloaded the app, which collected his bank credentials and siphoned off Rs 1.85 lakh. The incident came to his notice when he visited the bank recently and found that his money was transferred to various bank accounts,” said the police.
With many such incidents being reported, Vijayawada city cyber crime police have been conducting awareness programmes and informing the public not to fall into the trap of such messages. The officials further warned that such messages from scammers asking to clear the unpaid electricity bill are containing links to unsafe apps designed in a manner to extract credentials of the victim’s bank account. “Public must refrain from responding to such unverified messages,” said district CP Kanthi Rana Tata.
Raising awareness
The police have formed special teams and are reaching out to the public through Cheruva vehicles, explaining the preventive measures to be taken against cybercrimes, NTR district CP Kanthi Rana Tata said