Mohali: Tricked into installing fake gas app, man loses ₹6L

The complaint alleged that the fraudsters used the pending gas bill as a pretext to persuade the victim to install the application, through which they accessed his funds

The cybercrime police have booked unidentified suspects for allegedly siphoning ₹6 lakh from a 58-year-old Mohali resident’s bank account and credit card after tricking him into installing a mobile application to clear a pending piped gas bill.

The caller allegedly asked him to install an application named “Haryana Gas” to complete the payment. (HT File)

Complainant Inderpreet Singh of Sector 109, who deals in laboratory chemicals in Chandigarh, reported that his son Tushar Walia, a software engineer living in Gurugram, received WhatsApp messages and voice calls from his landlord on August 24 who allegedly told him to contact a man named Vinay Malhotra to pay a pending piped gas bill, warning that the authorities would disconnect the supply in case of non-payment.

Walia called Malhotra on the number provided by the landlord. The caller allegedly asked him to install an application named “Haryana Gas” to complete the payment. Since Walia used an iPhone that did not support the application, he asked his father to install it on his phone.

After Singh downloaded the application onto his mobile phone, which was linked to his Union Bank of India account, the suspects fraudulently transferred ₹5 lakh from his bank account and another ₹90,000 from his credit card.

Singh reported the transactions on the national cyber crime portal on August 24 and 26, stating that he had lost a total of ₹5.90 lakh. Following preliminary verification of the complaint and statements, the SAS Nagar cyber crime police station registered a case against unidentified suspects under Section 318(4) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), which deals with cheating, and Section 66 of the Information Technology Act.

Inspector Gursimranveer Singh is investigating the case. Police are tracing the suspects and the trail of the money.

The complaint alleged that the fraudsters used the pending gas bill as a pretext to persuade the victim to install the application, through which they accessed his funds.