Pimpri resident loses 15L to crooks in online piped gas fraud

Pune: Cybercrooks duped a 55-year-old resident of Udyamnagar in Pimpri of Rs 15 lakh in an online piped gas bill fraud on Feb 18.The victim on Thursday lodged a complaint with the Sant Tukaramnagar police. He stated in his complaint that on Feb 17, he received a message on his cellphone stating that his MNGL gas connection would be disconnected since his Jan bill was not updated. "The victim paid the bill online," an officer of the Sant Tukaramnagar police said.
He said on Feb 18, the victim received a call from an unknown person, who claimed to be an ‘officer' from Maharashtra Natural Gas Limited (MGNL). "The unknown man told the victim to download an ‘.APK file' and pay Rs 10 as updating charges," he said.The officer said the victim used his debit and credit cards to make the payment, but both transactions failed. The caller then told the victim that he would update the bill. "After some time, the victim started receiving debit messages from his bank. The crooks siphoned off Rs 15 lakh from his bank account," the officer said.