Electricity subscribers being sent fake SMSes to steal money from them
In recent months, electricity subscribers, especially of CESC in the Kolkata region, have been receiving SMSes, telling them that their connections would be cut off unless they paid their bills. However, these are all fake messages.
Both CESC and Kolkata Police have issued public alert messages, on social media as well as through SMS.
CESC’s SMS alert reads as follows: “Dear Consumer (Customer Id : 250000xxxxx), please do not be misled by any fake SMS. CESC doesn’t ask bank account or card details from Consumers. Our SMS has ‘CESC’ in sender name. Call 1912 for doubts.”
For lodging complaints, CESC’s helpline number is 1912 and for Kolkata Police, it is 8100796519, which is the number of Cyber Police Station. The latter number is on WhatsApp as well.
Every message follows the same format. A sample: “Dear customer your electricity power will be disconnected to night. At 10.30 pm from Electricity office Because your previous month bill was not update please immediately contact with your electricity officer 7325942121 Thank you”.
Note the lack of grammatical correctness and punctuations, and no mention of ‘CESC’ in the SMS. The electricity company has clearly stated in its awareness message that any message sent by it would contain ‘CESC’ in the sender’s name. Also, the contact number for every SMS is a different one. This is another proof of fakery.
Several people have put up screenshots of the fake messages. We are putting up a few samples so that you can avoid falling into the trap.
According to Kolkata Police, this is another operation of the infamous Jamtara gang. “We have registered a good number of cases and made some arrests also. In this case too will do that. The public should be alert and not respond to this scam,” said a senior cop.
The police also spoke about the modus operandi of these fraudsters, as narrated by some of those duped. On calling up the number mentioned in the SMS, they were asked to download an app, after which they got a web link from another mobile number, prompting them to make a small payment. As soon as they paid that amount through debit card (which was insisted upon), a message came that a big amount (Rs 50,000 in one case) had been debited, that is, stolen from their bank accounts.
If you receive any such messages, never call up the number. And it is better if you call up the above-mentioned helplines of CESC or Kolkata Police and lodge complaints, or WhatsApp the fraud message to the Kolkata Police Cyber Crime helpline number; or even put up the message on Twitter or Facebook (tagging CESC and/or Kolkata Police), to make others aware.
