A new scheme by hackers to trick people has been developed, and this time it includes your electricity bill.
In most cities, the electricity board will send out a message to subscribers reminding them to pay their electricity bills on time. People have, however, recently reported receiving WhatsApp messages telling them to pay their electricity bill or their electricity connection will be suspended. Even a tech-savvy person could be persuaded by the message to pay right away without giving it a second thought.
According to Twitter users, the notification informing customers to pay their electricity bill is typically issued via SMS or WhatsApp.
A scammer-owned phone number can be found in the message. The con artist convinces the user, who is frantically dialling the number, that they must pay for the electricity or risk having their electricity cut off. Most incidences of electricity scams have been recorded by con artists in Gujarat, Maharashtra, Punjab, and Odisha, among other cities.
The message says, “Dear Consumer Your Electricity power will be disconnected. Tonight at 9.30 pm from electricity office. because your previous month bill was not update. Please immediately contact with our electricity officer 8260303942 Thank you.” It is sent from a random phone number which does not belong to any of the electricity boards. Now if you notice clearly the message is not sent by an authorized source. When you get a message from say the BSES Delhi, the phone number is replaced by “BSES DL”.
The message’s use of language should raise another warning sign. The sentences are incorrectly constructed. The writing is really chaotic throughout. It is obvious that the message does not adhere to correct syntax. There are erroneous full stops and a complete lack of understanding of capital letters and small-cap characters.
People have been warned by the Maharashtra Cyber Cell to be aware of such mails that are delivered with the obvious goal of deceiving innocent people . Most people who have actually forgotten to pay their electricity bill are most likely to fall for the message since it is worrisome.
(With inputs from agencies)
