Watch out ! Cyber fraudsters on the prowl in Hyderabad

Hyderabad: Fraudsters have devised a new way of looting people by sending fraudulent messages to the electricity consumers in the guise of collecting pending electricity bills.

They are informing people that consumption bill paymentis pending and if the people fail to pay they threaten them to cut-off power supply. The thugs are collecting the bank account, credit card and debit card details and later withdrawing the huge sum of rupees from the electricity consumer's accounts illegally.

A retired judge of High Court from Banjara Hills, was their latest victim. The thugs had called him and took bank details to check the status of payment of electricity bills and looted an amount of Rs 45,931. Following which the victim lodged a complaint at the Banjara Hills police station.

In the complaint to the police, he said that the fraudsters had sent him a message stating that 'today 9:30 your electricity supply will be stopped if you don't clear your pending electricity bills', following which the judge got anxious and called upon the same number from which he received the message to clear that he has no pending bills.

When the judge called him the fraudster gave him a contact number claiming it be an official. The person posing as a power supply official asked him to give access to his bank account to check whether the amount has been paid or not. The judge gave the details to him and later an amount of Rs 45,931 was siphoned off from his bank account. Based on his complaint, the police have registered a case against the unknown person under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) related to fraud.

The cyber cell in-charge of Banjara Hills police station said, "There are few unregistered complaints, where people have lost money by providing the bank account details to the unidentified persons."

Hence, the Telangana State Southern Power Distribution Company Ltd (TSSPDCL) issued an advisory on how to protect oneself from the trap of such fraudsters.

TSSPDCL clarified that they never collect the details of the bank account/debit card/ credit card except for the payment receipt bill. And Company cannot send any website links through SMS/message for payment of bills. The Company is informing the details of current monthly bills and arrears through electricity bills to the consumers.

The consumers can also access the information of current consumption bills and arrears through the company website www.tssouthernpower.com or TSSPDCL mobile app.

In case of any complaints related to bill payments, the consumers can register their complaints online and can contact the Section officer (AE) for redressal of their grievance. The Company cannot cut off the power supply overnight/midnight. G Raghuma Reddy, Chairman and Managing Director of TSSPDCL appealed to the consumers not to share the details of bank account/credit card/debit card and not to follow the suspicious links for payment of electricity bills. The consumers may register their complaints with the police department on the suspicious acts if any.