A 52-year-old man, who works as the assistant general manager at Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL), lost nearly Rs2 lakh after falling prey to gas bill fraud and downloading a malicious file.
In his complaint, the Santacruz resident said that he wanted to disconnect the gas connection at his village in Gujarat. A month ago, he had initiated the process to snap his gas connection through written correspondence. On Tuesday, an unknown person called him, while claiming to be an executive of Sabarmati Gas Ltd.
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The caller told the complainant that he needs to clear the overdue bill for getting the connection disconnected, said the police. The man clarified that he had already sent a disconnection request a month earlier. Despite this, the caller sent a link and asked him to pay Rs12 to start the process. Soon after, the complainant received a file (.apk extension) named 'Gas Bill Update' on his WhatsApp.
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Upon opening the file, he filled in his personal information and customer number. Although the complainant received a one-time password on his phone, he did not share it. However, nine unauthorised transactions were made from his account, amounting to a total of Rs1,96,606.