UP: BEWARE! Fraud group targeting electricity consumers via fake messages

A new method to dupe electricity consumers through fake calls has surfaced in Uttar Pradesh. The Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation has lodged an FIR in Hazratganj police station in Lucknow against a gang which preys on electricity consumers through fake calls asking them to pay pending power bills, Hindustan Times sister publication Live Hindustan reported. 

According to the report, the gang sends messages to electricity consumers on their mobile phones through different numbers between 9:30 and 10:30 pm. The message reads asking the consumers to pay their pending bills or their power connection will be cut. When the victim calls up the number, the receiver tries to engage the unsuspecting customer for long duration to extract personal data. Worried that the gang might pull off a bigger fraud act, the power distribution company has lodged the complaint. 
 

Not only this, the power corporation has asked the power supply companies to send a message to the consumers informing them as to who should they trust for official communication related to their power connection. After receiving inputs from the customers about this gang, the Uttar Pradesh State Power Consumers Council chairman Avdhesh Kumar Verma on Monday met UPPCL chairperson M Devraj and managing director Pankaj Kumar, seeking action against the fraud gang, the website reported.

The top officials told the council chairman that all the power distribution companies are lodging FIRs in this connection. UPPCL chief Devraj is also learnt to have told officials to speak to Additional DGP Cyber Crime in this regard. 

 The consumer group has urged all the customers to ignore any unsolicited message received by them through any ten-digit number. Any official communication to the consumers is only sent on behalf of the UPPCLT and UPPCLA.