Chennai doctor falls prey to EB bill scam, loses Rs 95,000

CHENNAI: Within ten days of police issuing a warning to public about not fall for ‘Electricity Bill’ scams, a 55-year-old city doctor has become a victim of the fraudsters, who swindled about Rs 95,000 from her account.

On July 1, City police issued a warning to public to not fall prey to SMS from unauthorised numbers claiming that electricity bill is due and threaten that power supply will be cut off. Police adviced not to click on links shared in such texts.

Police said that M Shobana, a resident of Karpagam Avenue in Raja Annamalaipuram received a call from an unknown number on Thursday afternoon.

The caller claimed to be a staff of electricity department and told her that she has Rs 11 pending on her bill and asked her to pay the amount.

He asked her to check the text messages in her phone and click on the link to complete the payment for the pending amount.

The woman became alarmed after the man told her that power supply will be disconnected in her residence within minutes if the payment is not done, a police officer said.

After a while, when she received messages from the bank that an amount of Rs 95,000 was debited from her account, she called up the bank and enquired them about the transaction and realised that she was conned.

Based on her complaint, Mylapore police have registered a case and are investigating.