FPJ Cyber Secure: Doctor Falls Prey To Power Bill Fraud, Loses ₹8.48 Lakh

Mumbai: A 64-year-old doctor has become a recent victim of a power bill phishing fraud. The victim was induced to make a transaction of ₹20 first and after fraudsters got control of his phone, managed to siphon ₹8.48 lakh from his bank account.

According to the police, the victim, a resident of Mahavir Nagar, Kandivali East, received a message on August 30 from an unknown mobile stating that his residence’s electricity would be disconnected and was told to contact a mobile number stated in the message

The victim called the said number but the said number was busy. After some time the victim got a call from another mobile number from a person claiming to be calling from Bandra Kurla Complex.

Fraudster asked victim to download remote access app on mobile

The victim was told that his house electricity bill was pending and asked to pay ₹20 to update the bill. Then the fraudster asked the victim to download a remote access app on his mobile and through that he got access to his mobile and then he asked the victim to enter his credit card, net banking ID password in his mobile, which the fraudster later used to siphon money from the victim’s bank account in multiple transactions.

Having realised that he had been duped, the victim approached the police and got an offence registered on Monday. The victim has also provided details of the mobile numbers used by the fraudsters to communicate with him. The police have registered a case under section 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) of the Indian Penal Code and sections 66C (identity theft) and 66D (cheating by personation by using computer resource) of the Information Technology Act.