Beware! Power conmen on prowl

Are the “officials” who arrive at your doorstep to check your electricity meter, or repair faulty lines in the colony, really from the power distributing company? Apparently, not always. HT Correspondent cautions.

Are the “officials” who arrive at your doorstep to check your electricity meter, or repair faulty lines in the colony, really from the power distributing company? Apparently, not always.

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Electricity distributor BSES has come across a racket where miscreants are approaching residents posing as company officials and imposing “penalty” for supposed faults in their electricity usage. In latest instances, three South Delhi residents were duped of Rs 78,000.

In two cases, the impostors extorted money on the pretext the residents’ meters were tampered with.

The customers agreed to make an “on-the-spot payment” to settle the matter for a fraction of the so-called penalty amount.

Most importantly, the conmen had fake identity cards, which looked real enough, company officials said.

“The conmen were well-versed with technical parlance and they even had forged stationary. They intimidated customers with the threat to disconnect supply. The act must have been very convincing because people fell for it,” said an official.

In another instance, impostor deceived a resident into parting with Rs 45,000 by giving a cheque of equal amount. “The customer was told to give the cash as a necessary formality as they were not allowed to accept cheque,” he said.

Now BSES is coming out with advisory that all payments of more-than Rs 4,000 were required to be paid by cheque.

A Kotla Mubarakpur resident, after having paid Rs 15,000 once to these men, grew suspicious, snatched their ID cards and brought them to a BSES office nearby, where they were declared fake. But the imposter managed to escape and a search is on.