Scammers Target Tatarstan Residents During Gas Heater Checks

Amid safety inspections of gas water heaters, scammers have begun deceiving residents of Tatarstan by posing as the republic«s chief state housing inspector, Alexander Tygin. This was reported in the official Telegram channel of the Housing Inspectorate.

«Residents of Tatarstan are calling who have passed confidential information to the owners of the »GZhI« chat in Telegram. They are sure that they sent the confirmation code to Tygin personally because the account is named »Alexander Tygin« and the avatar is a photo from the website,» the channel wrote.

Representatives of the Housing Inspectorate also attached a screenshot from the fake chat. In it, the fake «Tygin» notifies residents of the need to provide up-to-date information about changes made or to report a gas or water leak, after which he apparently asks to send a code from an SMS. The resident in the screenshot sent the code without hesitation.

«We draw attention to the fact that every mobile phone owner can create several accounts, choose any name, set a photo from the vastness of the world wide web. On our website and in the mass media there are thousands of photos of Alexander Vasilyevich Tygin. All are freely available, any can be downloaded,» the channel noted and urged residents not to fall for such scams.

What will happen to those who provided the code is still unknown.

Let us recall that earlier in Kazan a problem with gas water heaters was identified: after summer checks of smoke removal and ventilation systems in 49 apartment buildings, they were deemed problematic. In 23 buildings, gas had to be completely shut off, and in another 26 partially.