Dr B Thomas (Special correspondent)
Sunitha Premkumar,49-year-old gazetted officer with the IT department become the latest victim of the BESCOM electricity bill payment scam .
She is among the two persons who lost a total sum of Rs.8.3 lakh in separate incidents on Saturday.
In her complaint,Ms.Premkumar said that she received a phone call from a man identifying himself as BESCOM staff and informed her to pay the electricity bill due to avoid disconnection.
The person offered help and suggested to download quick support app and she followed the instructions and transferred Rs.20 using the app.
As soon as the payment was made,a total sum of ₹ 4.9 lakh has been deducted from her saving bank account.
Ms.Premkumar,resident of Haraluru called up the control room to report the matter and later filed a complaint with the south east division,cyber crime police.
The police swung into action and tracked the money trail to freeze the account.
Efforts are on to recover the transfer money,a police officer said adding that the victims should report any cyber frauds to 112 immediately during golden hour to help the police freeze the account .
This facility is available round the clock and the people should share the details of the transactions as soon as they call and report the matter, he added.
People should not check any links or download any apps randomly.Once these Apps are downloaded the accounts become accessible to the fraudsters who can operate the account numbers without even PIN Numbers.
In a similar incident,Mahadev Manjunath Hegde, resident of BTM Layout lost Rs.3.4 lakh to the conman who posing as BESCOM Staff called him to pay the electricity bill dues online.
The accused asked him to download the ANYDESK APP and as soon as the app was downloaded his account was hacked and money was transferred.
The police have registered a case of impersonation, cheating and also under various sections of the IT Act for further investigations .
