Couple duped of Rs 3.7 lakh using Bescom bill

BENGALURU: A famous city restaurateur and his wife were cheated of Rs 3.7lakh by online fraudsters claiming to be from Bescom. Diana D’Souza, the wife of Blaise D’Souza, said the fraudsters removed the money from their joint account in Yes Bank, and attempted to hack their Axis Bank account, but failed.

It started with a message on February 28, saying their Bescom bill payment had not been updated. “Dear customer, your electricity will be disconnected tonight at 9.30 pm as the previous month’s bill has not been updated,” read the message.

Diana then got a call from a person who introduced himself as Sharma. “He claimed to be a Bescom officer, and first asked for my number. He gave me the correct RR number of the bill and bank details. Then he hacked our joint account in Yes Bank and withdrew money,” she said.

“He then attempted to hack Blaise’s Axis Bank account. He withdrew Rs 11, and attempted to withdraw Rs 20,000, and again Rs 40,000, but was not successful because an alert manager blocked the transactions.”
Diana is surprised that despite reporting the case to cybercops, the conman’s mobile number 9046830414 is still in operation. ‘’Also, a second message came from another number, 8987904318,’’ she said.

The fraud is the latest in a string of similar cases in which conmen pose as Bescom officers and gain access to people’s accounts.

“The fraudster appears to have done complete homework on our account details and has the RR number of our domestic power connection. He also asked me which phone I use. Since I have an iPhone, he cut the call and called my husband Blaise D’Souza.’’ When Diana got suspicious, she tried to cut the calls but Sharma persisted and asked why she was cutting the calls.