Ahmedabad: Yet another case of cyberfraud has come to light in which the bait was a warning about possible disconnection of a PNG connection. This time, it was a 51-year-old Ahmedabad businessman who was sent a message about an unpaid gas bill and cheated out of Rs 10.1 lakh.The businessman on Saturday filed a complaint with city cybercrime stating that he received a WhatsApp message from an unknown number on Sept 8. Purportedly from Adani Gas, the message warned that his supply would be stopped at 9pm because his previous month’s bill payment had not been updated. It also carried what appeared to be the company’s logo as the WhatsApp profile picture and instructed him to contact a number once the payment was done.The complainant believed the message and paid his Rs 1,851 gas bill through GPay and shared details of the payment made to the sender. He also called the number mentioned in the message. The person on the other end of the phone allegedly told him that a link would be sent to update his bill. The complainant told police he refused to open the link and ended the call. About 30 minutes later, he allegedly received an alert that Rs 5 lakh had been debited from his account. While he was rushing to the bank to block the account, another Rs 5 lakh was allegedly withdrawn. While he got this account blocked, Rs 10,000 and Rs 12,210 were debited from two other accounts.He immediately reported the incident to the 1930 cybercrime helpline, following which a complaint was registered. The Rs 10,000 transaction was later reversed, reducing the amount allegedly lost to Rs 10.12 lakh.The complainant alleged that the fraudsters had gained unauthorised access to his mobile phone and bank accounts despite him not opening the link. He submitted WhatsApp chats, bank emails and statements to police.
