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About this tool
The meter-update SMS that ends in a remote-access app or a UPI collect request, checked against the 15 clear days notice the Electricity Act requires.
The electricity meter update scam is a smishing script in which an SMS warns that supply will be cut the same evening over an unpaid bill, and the follow-up call ends with a remote-access app install or a UPI collect request. This explainer walks the seven stages, scores the message on a weighted twelve-point checklist, and tests the claimed deadline against Section 56(1) of the Electricity Act, 2003, which permits disconnection for non-payment only after not less than fifteen clear days' notice in writing.
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Counts clear days between the notice and the cut-off and compares them with the Section 56(1) minimum.
A PIN only ever authorises money leaving your account — never a refund, never a credit.
The DISCOM's own app, an authorised centre, BBPS, or the number printed on your paper bill.
Section 56(1) of the Electricity Act, 2003 requires not less than fifteen clear days' notice in writing before supply is cut off for non-payment. Clear days exclude both the day the notice is served and the day of the proposed disconnection, so a message threatening disconnection the same evening has no legal basis whatsoever.
No. A UPI PIN only ever authorises money leaving your account. Credits arrive with no action from you at all. Anyone asking you to enter a PIN to receive a refund, verify an account or complete a ten-rupee check is asking you to approve a debit.
Because remote-support and screen-sharing apps let them see your screen and, with accessibility permission, operate your phone. The code the app displays is the pairing invitation — reading it out completes the connection. From that point they can watch you type a PIN and read one-time password notifications.
Open your distribution company's own app or website by typing the address yourself, and look up your consumer number from a past paper bill. You can also pay through Bharat Bill Payment System in your bank app, where the biller appears by its registered name. Never use a number, link or app that arrived in the warning message.