Thane man based in US duped of Rs 1 lakh by scammers posing as gas firm staff

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A man hailing from Maharashtra's Thane and currently residing in the US, has been scammed of about Rs 1 lakh by fraudsters posing as officials of a piped cooking gas company, police said on Monday, PTI reported.

The victim, who owns a house in Thane and is currently employed in New Jersey, received calls from two different numbers on his phone on December 20, 2024.

An official from Naupada police station said that the callers claimed to be from the "MNGL" and informed the victim that he had not paid the bills of the gas service provider, PTI reported.

The scammers allegedly took Rs 99,900 from the victim through various modes of payment, he said.

According to PTI, the victim later realised that he was cheated.

Based on the complaint from one of his relatives, the Naupada police on Saturday registered a case against the unidentified scammers under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita section 318(4) (cheating) and provisions of the Information Technology Act, the official said.

No one was arrested so far, the official claimed, adding that a probe is underway, PTI reported.

Crooks pose as CBI sleuths, dupe 60-year old of Rs 1.75 crore

In yet another case of cyber fraud involving the misuse of central agency names, a 60-year-old retired consultant from Bandra lost R1.75 crore in a two-month-long cyber scam.

According to the victim, a woman, she was duped by the accused posing as officials from DHL Courier, Delhi Cyber Crime, the CBI, and a finance department. A case has been filed with the Mumbai cyber cell based on the woman's complaint.

According to the complainant, the fraud began on October 14, 2024. The victim said that she received a call from a woman who identified herself as Ritu Sharma, claiming to be a representative of DHL Courier in Delhi and claimed that a parcel in her name, sent to Bangkok, contained passports, credit cards, clothes, a laptop and 140 grams of MDMA.

"As I denied sending any parcel, my call was transferred to individuals claiming to be officials from the Delhi Crime Branch and the CBI. These individuals, including someone who identified himself as Inspector Pradeep Sawant and a CBI officer who identified as Sadhan Pawar, accused me of money laundering, child trafficking, and drug smuggling. They threatened me with arrest and pressured her to cooperate," said the victim in her statement to the cyber cell.

(With PTI inputs)