"Gas Connection Will Be Cut Tonight": How Mumbaikars Were Duped Amid Mideast Crisis

Over 100 residents in Mumbai were conned after fraudsters sent them messages asking them to pay their pending gas connection bills immediately.

The Mahanagar Gas Limited (MGL) customers said the scammers sent messages warning that if their previous month's bill was not paid immediately, their connection would be "disconnected tonight".

People were tricked into downloading an unknown APK file on their devices. The cybercriminals then gained remote access to their mobile phones and stole the victims' banking data and syphoned off crores of rupees from their accounts.

People seeking new gas connections were also targeted via fraudulent calls and sent links to fake apps.

The cyber fraudsters swindled about Rs 2.7 crore from such customers in the last 30 days.

The MGL, which serves consumers in Maharashtra and Karnataka, had last month announced that all the new domestic PNG (piped natural gas) registrations between March 16 and April 30 will get free gas worth Rs 500.

An adjustment of Rs 1,000 in gas bills per customer from new buildings where the penetration level is more than 60 per cent, the utility had said.

The scam took place amid concerns over energy supply disruptions due to the US-Israel war on Iran.

The disruptions come as scores of commercial vessels and thousands of seafarers remain stranded in the Persian Gulf since the outbreak of the war on February 28, which has sharply curtailed movement through the Strait of Hormuz.

Tehran has largely closed Hormuz, which normally carries one-fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas shipments, while Washington has blocked Iran's oil exports.