With instances of cooking gas consumers being cheated, Indian Oil Corporation Ltd. has warned customers not to believe strangers and hand over cash under any pretext.
Messages of elderly persons being cheated of money ranging anywhere between ₹3,000 and ₹9.000 by a woman sporting ID card of Indane are doing the rounds on social media. “The woman was aged around 22. She spoke very quickly and I found it difficult to follow what she was saying. She told me she would give me an equipment that would sound alert 10 days before the LPG cylinder gets empty. She took ₹9,600 cash from me,” said a senior citizen in an audio message.
In another case at Arumbakkam, a senior citizen who was alone at home, had let in a woman to check the cylinder and stove. But luckily, she sent her out after she got suspicious. With oil marketing companies increasing deposit rates for new connections, there have been instances of these hoodwinkers telling senior citizens that they would have to pay additional deposit amount.
A senior official of Indane said they had been sending out messages to the public from time-to-time asking them not to trust strangers and hand over any cash to them. “The company will only send people to conduct the annual mandatory checks and the fee collected for this is only ₹150,” the official explained.
An LPG distributor said that she always sent text messages ahead of the visit of a mechanic and a staff member. “I would send the delivery boy along with them to inform the consumers. Otherwise, many customers do not allow our staff to enter their homes. But it is said that in many cases educated customers are cheated in this manner. They have to be extremely cautious and not pay such heavy amounts to these fraudsters,” she said.
