Pune: “Your MNGL gas connection will be disconnected tonight from the MNGL office because your previous month’s bill was not updated. Please contact our officer immediately.”A 72-year-old software professional from Mumbai received this message on Feb 11 while she was at a training session in an IT firm at Kharadi. After the session, she contacted the given cellphone number. A few minutes later, the woman received a call from another cellphone number.“The caller, who posed as an MNGL officer, told the woman that he would share an APK file with her. She was told to fill in her bank and other details, or else her gas connection would be disconnected,” an officer from the Kharadi police told TOI.He said the woman downloaded that file. The person called her again and told her to transfer Rs 7 to update the bill. The woman tried it twice, but the money was not transferred to the bank account number given to her.While the woman was again in the lecture, she started receiving messages from her bank. She had 10 fixed deposits in her bank, of which 7 were discontinued. Rs 11.95 lakh was transferred to her bank account and was immediately siphoned off after which she lodged a complaint. “A case has been registered with Kharadi police on Wednesday,” the officer said.Fraudsters sent an APK file to the complainant’s friend, who forwarded it to him after failing to open it. The complainant downloaded the file and entered his details in a form for meter reading, an Airport police officer said. He was asked to pay Rs 20. When he tried paying by credit card, no OTP was received. Growing suspicious, he checked his statement and found six unauthorised transactions totalling Rs 5.40 lakh, and filed a police complaint.In the third case, a 65-year-old private company executive from Khar in Mumbai was duped of Rs 2.92 lakh using APK file using his credit card details. The victim lodged a complaint with the Lonavla City police.
