Indore bizman duped of ₹2L by electricity scammers; cyber cell recovers money

The amount was recovered and returned to the complainant after a prompt action of the cyber cell.

The Indore cyber cell has revealed how people are falling prey to fraud as scammers are trying to exploit them by demanding hefty sums of money and confusing them into paying fake bills online. Recently, cyber criminals phished ₹2 lakh by making a victim download an app called ‘Team Viewer’.

The victim was made to transfer ₹30 to MPEB website and shortly duped of ₹2 lakh.  ((Stock Photo))

Highlighting the incident, the Indore cyber cell on Friday said a businessman, who runs a pouch manufacturing factory, was duped of ₹2 lakh by a scammer, who had identified himself as an electricity department official. The scammer told the businessman that the factory's electricity connection would be disconnected if he didn't make the payment by 9 pm and was made to download the Team Viewer app. He was then asked to pay ₹30 in Urjas app of the Madhya Pradesh Electricity Board ( MPEB).

But shortly after the payment, ₹2 lakh was debited from the victim's account. However, the amount was recovered and returned to the complainant after a prompt action of the cyber cell, it said.

A complaint regarding the incident was lodged on May 25.

An investigation into the matter revealed that the money was transferred to a website called fonepaisa.com. The website later returned the money to the complainant.

The cyber cell also issued some cautionary measures that can be taken to avoid such scams.

1. Block the phone numbers asking you to pay due electricity bills.

2. Go to your nearest MPEB office for resolving due payments.

3. Do not ever comply with anyone directing you to download any application on your mobile phone, as this can have serious implications because of data theft and financial loss.

4. In case of any kind of fraud, contact your nearest police station and cyber cell and register a complaint or visit cybercrime.gov.in.

The state cyber police had issued an advisory, last month regarding the same tricking pattern of duping money online and tweeted.