An attempt to contact the civic body for pest control services turned out to be a costly ordeal for an 87-year-old retired municipal doctor from the Khar area of Mumbai, who lost Rs 16.14 lakh to fraudsters. The incident came to light recently.

The complainant, Dr Shalu Bhutani, had retired from the municipal corporation in 1997. On December 20, Dr Bhutani looked for the contact number of the H-West Ward (Bandra, and parts of Khar and Santacruz) of the municipal corporation on Google and requested for mosquito pest control in her society, believing that she had contacted the civic body.