Mumbai: How electricity frauds operate and what you should and should not do

As the new electricity bill scam grips the city and innocent citizens continue to lose their hardearned money in the blink of an eye midday decides to go deeper and understand the operations of these fraudsters This reporter connected with a scamster who posed as an electricity officer and stayed with him till the end losing Rs 1400 so that you donrsquot fall in the trap of the imposters out thereThe imposters manage to scam gullible consumers by threatening to disconnect the electricity supply There have been hundreds of cases of power bill scam in the city but the police have managed to crack just a few of them Between June 7 and July 4 imposters cheated 76 people and looted Rs 106 crore from them in Mumbai alone The Mumbai police made the first arrest of a 37yearold man who duped a 53yearold resident of Nepean Sea Road a few days back Also read Electricity bills to go up from this month in MaharashtraThe midday reporter contacts the number in the screenshot of a message he receivedTo know exactly how the imposters operate midday reporter Shirish Vaktania trailed their modus operandi and here is what he found The imposter calls you and introduces himself as an employee of a power distribution company and asks you to pay the bill or face disconnection Once he convinces you he asks you to download an app such as AnyDesk QuickSupport or TeamViewer from Google Play Store These apps give them remote access to your mobile phone after you share with them a unique code given in the appOnce the caller has access to your phone he sends a link asking you to fill in your personal information including details of your creditdebit card Lastly the caller guides you to deposit an amount of Rs 10 or less on the pretext of updating the electricity bill that he claims has crossed the due date Once you make the payment the caller sees the remaining balance in your bank account through the bankrsquos auto alert message that you receive on your mobile phone He then cleans your account of all the balanceAttempt 1 failsJuly 8 2022 at 1035 am This reporter receives from a friend a screenshot of a message that read Dear Consumer your Electricity Power will be disconnected tonight at 930 pm from electricity officer previous month bill was not updated Please immediately contact with electricity officer 9330387188midday reporter Shirish Vaktani checks AnyDesk appThe reporter calls on the number and in the evening receives a message VEVC Your electricity power will be disconnected 1030 pm because your bill not updated Contact electricity call 9861237276 Regards IBM He contacted 9861237276 and herersquos how the conversation proceededReporter Hello I received a message that my electricity bill is not updated but I had already paid my bill Dont disconnect my power supplyFraudster Hello I am the electricity officer and I will help you Your electricity bill is not updated in the system You can update it through your mobile phone only If you dont our electricity officer will disconnect your supply Reporter What do I do Fraudster Go to Google Play Store and download AnyDeskReporter It is doneScreegrab of AnyDesk app and the ninedigit number which the caller sought from the reporter The reporter then gives him a ninedigit number to the caller who takes control of his phone In some time the caller sends the reporter a text message with a link to pay Rs 2 to update the electricity bill The link was httpssurveyheartcomform62bd42685b6e107a683daf21 The reporter opens the link However the fraudster realises the reporter is taking screenshots of the procedure and grows suspicious The caller goes to the factory settings of the phone and erases all the data Attempt 20The reporter gets another contact number from which a similar message for power bill update was sent He calls the number and the conversation that happened in Hindi and was translated to English starts The reporter has kept a little over R1000 in his bank account for the trapReporter Hello I received a message saying my power bill has not been updatedImposter Yes itrsquos correct but I will help you update it Put your phone on speaker and follow my instructions Go to Google Play Store and download AnyDesk I checked my system and I can see that we did not send you any message for updateReporter You sent the number on fathers phone number and he asked me to checkImposter Okay You download AnyDeskReporter Yes Itrsquos downloadedImposter Now you will be able to see a ninedigit number on the app Give me that The reporter gives him the numberImposter Okay we have accepted your request to update the bill You should have received a message with a link open the linkReporter I am being asked to pay R10 to update the billImposter Yes you have to pay a charge which will be adjusted against your next monthrsquos bill Reporter A page with PayU merchant has opened Imposter Is lsquoupdate electricity billrsquo mentioned thereReporter YesImposter Enter your fatherrsquos mobile number and email IDReporter Itrsquos done Now therersquos a payment request Imposter Does it mention update electricity billReporter YesImposter Now make the payment using the link I shared earlier You can pay Rs 10 through your card or via online bankingReporter Will the bill be updated after the paymentImposter Most certainly Now a page will open where you have to enter your card number expiry date CVV and name of the card and proceedReporter DoneImposter Now you will receive an OTP which you have to enter on a page that opens Do not share the OTP with me or anyone elseReporter Rs 10 is deductedImposter Now you would have received a message from your bank about the deduction of R10 Please share that with meImposter Your power bill is not getting updated with this card do you have any other Reporter NoImposter Use your dadrsquos cardReporter He is not at homeImposter Put him on a conference call with us and ask him to send the photo of his card on WhatsAppReporter Ok I will do that Before adding his father he asked him to not answer the callReporter My fatherrsquos not answering the call Imposter Send me his number I will add him Imposter Your father is not answering Go back to AnyDesk and click on accept and restart I will check the payment from your Bank of India cardShirish Rs 1400 has been deducted from my bank account Return the amountImposter That is a deposit which you will get back only when your father makes the payment of Rs 10 Call me again when your father returnsThe scamster disconnects the call The reporter calls him againReporter You have cheated me and taken all the money that I had Now I have nothing leftImposter We are not a fraud You will get your money back when your dad pays Rs 10Reporter I called the power company and they told me this was a fraud Imposter This is wrong He then disconnects the callWhat the cyber cops sayCyber Deputy Commissioner of Police Mumbai Hemraj Rajput said ldquoWe request the citizens to not get into the trap of these fraudsters Any electricity company will intimate eight days prior to their customers if they will disconnect the supply This is the protocol Always crosscheck with genuine websites Never click on any link or download any apps if a caller asks you to Electricity companies are also providing advisory notes on their websites and social media platformsrdquo Report such incidents on cybercrimegovin and call on 1930 and follow mumbaipolice on Twitter YouTube Facebook Instagram Public Koo and LinkedIn for safety tips said the police What to do in case you are conned Contact your bank and block your accounts debitcredit cards If payment was made via wallets report the fraud to them After your account gets debited for the first time do not authenticate any further payments because the criminals will persuade you to make payments to other accounts on various pretext Report the crime online at cybercrimegovin Submit a detailed written complaint to the local police station with the copies of evidence of payments and obtain an acknowledgment Submit the acknowledged copy from police station to the bank or ewallet firm Change relevant passwords of apps and mail accounts for further safety