Mumbai: At a time when US-Israel and Iran’s war has affected the gas and fuel supply across the world, fraudsters are capitalising on the LPG crisis, using it as a tool to cheat people. In one month, at least four complaints have been registered in one police station where victims collectively lost Rs 70 lakh after they were threatened that their gas connection would be disconnected. “Official representatives of a gas agency never ask for details of your bank account, OTP or debit card over the phone. The fraudsters are using all these methods to cheat people. One has to be alert,” said the police source. Police said a 64-year-old retired employee of an insurance company told police that she received a text message saying, “Your MGL gas connection will be disconnected tonight at 7.30pm. Please contact MGL officer Mr Manish Rathore.” The message contained a mobile number too. When she dialled the number, she was told her gas connection’s CA number was blocked. To unblock the CA number, the accused sent a malicious APK file to the complainant and asked her to download it and fill in her details. However, she could not download it on her Iphone and told Rathore about it. The fraudster then sent the APK file on her husband’s android phone. She was asked to pay Rs 7. She used her debit card for it. After she filled in her debit card details, she was told that there was a mistake in the process and she was asked to use another debit card. She suspected something was amiss and stopped the process. Next day, she received messages that Rs 26.53 lakh was deducted from her account and Rs 45,000 was deducted from her husband’s account. The couple lost almost Rs 27 lakh. In another case, a fraudster using similar modus operandi contacted a western suburb resident and asked him to make payment for gas connection update and sent a fraud APK file in the name of MGL. Once the complainant downloaded and submitted his information, Rs 20.27 lakh was debited from his account. In another case, a fraudster contacted the complainant, saying his gas bill was pending and the connection would be disconnected. The accused sent a malicious APK file in the name of MGL to the consumer and siphoned over Rs 10 lakh from his account.
