A senior citizen from Marol in Mumbai was allegedly duped of Rs 4.98 lakh by cyber fraudsters who posed as officials of Mahanagar Gas.
According to the complaint, the incident occurred on December 7–8, when the man, who lives with his 64-year-old wife, received a text message warning that his piped natural gas (PNG) connection would be disconnected due to non-payment of the previous month’s bill.
The message, sent from an unknown number, asked him to contact a person claiming to be a “Mahanagar Gas officer” and included a link to download an APK file described as a gas bill update application.
After contacting the number mentioned in the message, the caller instructed the complainant to download the app and later asked him to open his bank’s mobile application. When an attempted transaction from his account failed, the fraudster asked whether he held any other bank accounts. The complainant then mentioned his brother’s account.
The fraudster subsequently obtained the brother’s debit card details, following which three transactions of Rs 1,45,998 each were debited, totalling Rs 4,37,994. The complainant later discovered that an additional Rs 60,131 had been transferred from his own bank account.
Realising that fake links and applications had been used to gain unauthorised access to their bank accounts, the complainant approached the police and lodged a formal complaint.
“We have registered a case against unknown persons under the relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and the Information Technology Act, and initiated an investigation,” an officer from the Meghwadi Police Station said.
Citizens have been advised not to click on suspicious links or download APK files, the officer added.
