Despite warnings and awareness campaigns by law enforcement and other departments, people continue to fall victims to online fraudsters.
Despite warnings and awareness campaigns by law enforcement and other departments, people continue to fall victims to online fraudsters. A 52-year-old woman lost ₹4.24 lakh on Friday after she operated her bank account on a phishing link.
According to police, G Krishnaveni (52), a resident of Alagesan road, was contacted by a person who claimed to be TNEB staff and sent her a link to pay the electricity bill to avoid disconnection of service. Thinking of it as an alert from the department, she sent ₹10 as a trial payment and lost ₹4.24 lakh from her bank account. She complained to the Cybercrime police on Saturday.
TANGEDCO recently cautioned consumers not to open any suspicious links. According to police, EB consumers are sent an SMS that states that the electrical connection would be disconnected if bill details are not updated. The message would prompt the victim to call a mobile phone number. They then offer help to make payment. They target to get details of debit cards, and they steal money from the bank account.
This is the second fraud committed in the name of TNEB in the district in the last two months. On June 7, V Natarajan (83) of GN lost ₹8.7 lakh. A senior police officer advised people to confirm if their service providers have such services. The officer said that the money could be traced and recovered if the incident was reported in time.
TANGEDCO Chief Engineer (Coimbatore region) E David Jebasingh told TNIE that the department does not send such SMS alerts/links. Consumers must contact the police or the department helpline at 94987-94987.