CHANDIGARH, Dec. 5 — A Chandigarh couple lost more than ₹3.67 lakh after cyber fraudsters impersonating executives of the Chandigarh Power Distribution Company tricked them into clicking a malicious link and sharing OTPs during a power outage.
In a complaint to the Sector 17 cyber crime police station, Umesh Kumar of Sector 35A said the incident occurred on September 2 when electricity went out at their home. Her husband, Kanil Kumar, searched online for CPDL’s customer care number and dialled 9635934050, which appeared authentic on Google.
“The person who picked up claimed he was from the electricity department and said we needed to pay ₹10 to update our bill,” Umesh said in the complaint.
When Kanil told the caller he only used Google Pay, the fraudster sent a payment link via WhatsApp from another number and persuaded him to click it. Within minutes, multiple unauthorized transactions drained ₹3.67 lakh from their account.
Police said the matter is under investigation.
