Your electricity power will be disconnected: This SMS about your electricity bill is fake | – Times of India

An electricity bill scam has been doing the rounds for months now. The fraud, despite warnings from various experts and banks, continues to claim victims. The message in this scam comes via SMS or WhatsApp. These messages claim to be from the electricity department and threaten the recipient that the power at his home will be cut tonight as the last month’s bill has not been updated. The message reads: “Dear customer your electricity power will be disconnected by tonight. Last month bill was not updated. Immediately contact our officer 9054XXXXX — Brents”.
Another example of such scam SMS is: “Dear Customer Your Electricity power will be disconnected Tonight at 8.30 pm from electricity office. Because your previous month bill was not update, please immediately contact with our electricity officer 8240471159 Thank you.”

Several users have tweeted about receiving such messages and shared how they have been duped by them. The messages aim to scare people and make them call on the number given in the SMS. The modus operandi is to fool the person and make him call on the given number. Once the call is made, the caller is asked to download an app and do a test payment. The payments asked to do are never big, usually Re 1 or Rs 5. The aim is not to raise suspicion.
The State Bank of India (SBI) too has tweeted warning people about such messages. “Understand “YehWrongNumberHai”! Never call back or respond to such SMSs as these are scam to steal your personal/financial information. Stay Alert and #SafeWithSBI. #CyberJagrooktaDiwas,”
More such common and dangerous scams are related to KYC of mobile numbers and bank accounts. Similar to the message above, these messages ask users to call on a certain number to complete the KYC. These numbers are of cybercriminals who steal money from users’ bank accounts in the name of updating KYC.