Don’t fall prey to fraudulent texts on bill payments: Bescom

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: A new method to dupe people by sending fraudulent payment links by online scammers has surfaced in Bengaluru recently.

The Bangalore Electricity Supply Company (Bescom) has been reportedly receiving complaints by its consumers over losing money to the bill payment links sent to them via text messages. The message asks the consumers to pay their pending bills or their power connection will be cut off.

“Dear Customers, your electricity will be disconnected tonight at 10:30 pm from Bescom electricity office as your previous month bill was not paid. Please immediately pay your outstanding bill amount here,” one of the messages sent to a consumer, read.

The consumer, thinking that the message had been sent from Bescom, followed the payment link and paid his outstanding bill of Rs 1350. However, he soon found that the money he paid didn’t reach Bescom.

The consumer said, “I paid the bills last Saturday, but the same has not been updated till Thursday. When asked, the Bescom officials denied receiving any payments from me.”

After several consumers approached the power utility with similar complaints, Bescom issued a statement on Thursday warning consumers of fraudulent sites “misrepresenting themselves as Bescom agents for the collection of electricity charges.”

In clarification, the Bescom said that they don’t send any such messages and never insist on paying bills via text messages. The issue has now been taken up with the cyber crime police. 

“It has been brought to the notice of Bescom that several consumers across Bengaluru received text messages regarding the discontinuation of service. One such message was shared to Bescom as well. The message said that the electric power will be disconnected as the bill for the previous month was not updated. It further asked the consumer to contact a number ending with 933 and pay the bill on that number and send a screenshot of the bill on WhatsApp,” Bescom said in its statement.

The Bescom has urged all the consumers to ignore any unsolicited message demanding bill payments.
It also added that the power utility cannot be held responsible for payments made to any other agencies, vendors, outlets or website gateways other than those approved by Bescom, the payment has to be made only to specified authorised collection centres and vendors.