A 76-year-old resident of Ahmedabad’s Vastral area allegedly lost ₹5.84 lakh after cyber-fraudsters threatened to disconnect his electricity connection and sent him a malicious Android application file through WhatsApp, according to a report by Divya Bhaskar.
The incident was reported to have occurred around 20 days before the victim approached the authorities. He received a message in English stating that his electricity bill had not been updated and that his connection would be disconnected at 9.30 pm. The message asked him to contact a billing officer immediately.
When the retired employee called the number provided in the message, the person on the other end allegedly introduced himself as a billing officer. The caller then sent a file named “Electricity Bill Update Last Month Update(4).apk” through WhatsApp and instructed the victim to download it to update his electricity bill.
After downloading the file and entering the requested details, the victim’s debit card and credit card information was allegedly obtained by the fraudsters. Transactions were subsequently carried out in instalments from his Indian Overseas Bank account, with a total of ₹5.84 lakh transferred to different bank accounts, the report said.
The complaint also stated that transactions were made through the victim’s credit card. The fraud came to light after money was withdrawn from the bank account. The victim then contacted the bank and initiated steps to block the account.
He later filed a detailed complaint with the cybercrime branch. Police registered a case against unidentified persons and began an investigation into the alleged fraud, including the transfers made to other bank accounts.
The case highlights how electricity-connection threats are being used to push residents into downloading files from unofficial sources. The message relied on an urgent service-related warning and a fixed disconnection time, while the caller presented himself as an electricity billing official.
The police investigation is expected to establish the identities of the persons involved, trace the recipient bank accounts and examine the use of the APK file in obtaining the victim’s financial information. No further official details about arrests or recovery of the money were included in the report.
