Navi Mumbai: A 54-year-old woman from Kharghar lost Rs 4.6 lakh in a gas bill scam by cyber fraudsters posing as officials from Mahanagar Gas Ltd (MGL). An FIR was registered on Wednesday. The victim received a WhatsApp message on Feb 18 claiming to be from MGL, stating that her gas bill was not updated and the PNG supply to her residence would be disconnected after two hours. The message mentioned the name and mobile number of Devesh Joshi, whom she was told to contact to resolve the issue. She contacted the said mobile number, and the person claimed that he was a senior official with MGL. When she told him that her gas bill payment was updated, he told her to send a screenshot of her updated payment and sent her an APK file link for sending the details.While she was uploading the details, the fraudster hacked her mobile and remotely accessed her mobile data. He fraudulently debited the amount from her bank account. As she received multiple bank alerts about money being debited from her bank account, she enquired with her bank, where she was told that she was targeted by cyber fraudsters.In another case last Sept, a 71-year-old man from Koparkhairane had lost Rs 12 lakh in a similar MGL bill payment fraud. He received a message from an unidentified fraudster warning him that his PNG pipeline would be disconnected due to non-update of his last payment.
