Dombivli: Cyber fraud cases are on the rise across the city, and scammers have now started targeting citizens in the name of gas bill payments. A working woman from Sunil Nagar in Dombivli East was duped of ₹2,99,500 after fraudsters threatened to disconnect her gas connection.
Victim Smita Rane Files Complaint at Ramnagar Police Station
The victim, identified as Smita Rane, has filed a complaint at the Ramnagar Police Station regarding the incident. According to the complaint, Smita Rane lives with her family in the Sunil Nagar area of Dombivli East and works as a salaried employee. Their household has been using piped gas supplied by Mahanagar Gas since last year, and the family regularly pays its gas bills on time.
As per the complaint, last week a message was received on the mobile phone of Smita’s husband, Yatin Rane, claiming that their Mahanagar Gas bill payment was not reflecting in the company’s system. The message warned that if the dues were not cleared immediately, the gas connection to their house would be disconnected. Yatin forwarded the message to his wife.
Concerned about the warning, Smita contacted the mobile number from which the message had been sent and informed the caller that the payment had already been made. The caller claimed that although the payment was completed, it was not visible in the office records and asked her to complete an online verification process to update the payment status.
Victim Clicks Malicious Link, Enters Card Details During Call
During the conversation, the caller sent her a link and instructed her to follow the steps while keeping the call active. When Smita clicked the link, she proceeded with the online process and entered details using both her credit and debit cards. Shortly afterwards, she received a message stating that the transaction could not be completed through the cards.
However, while the call with the unknown person was still active, the fraudster managed to withdraw ₹2 lakh from her credit card and ₹99,500 from her debit card through online transactions. Smita soon received SMS alerts from her bank regarding the withdrawals.
Realising that she had been cheated, she immediately contacted the bank and blocked both cards to prevent further transactions. She later approached Ramnagar Police Station and lodged a complaint against the unidentified cyber fraudster.
Police officials said that earlier fraudsters used to lure victims with promises of high investment returns, but now they have begun exploiting essential services such as gas connections to create panic among customers and carry out cyber fraud.
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