How To Not Get Scammed At Indian Petrol Stations

The fuel cost is ever-increasing. To make matters worse, sometimes you even get scammed by fuel attendants. But it would be great if you know how to avoid all the tricks that they use to rip off fuel buyers. Here are five tips to bypass common scams at the Indian petrol bunkers.

Don’t get distracted by small talks at the gas station

After long traffic, it is tempting to get into human interaction with others, especially with the keen gas filler at the station. Regardless of how polite and enthusiast you are towards others, you should never get your eyes off the fuel pump while refilling your gas tank. Getting customers distracted by talking to them and cheating them is the most commonly used trick at the petrol stations.

Normally, there will be two players in this scenario. The first one will take charge to fill your gas tank while the other who collects money will try to get you involved in small talk in order to distract you from the filling process. By doing that, the customers will not notice how much fuel has been dispensed for their vehicles. The scammer will then dispense gas that is less than what you have paid for. So, you better pay attention and don’t be easily beguiled by chitchat at the gas station.

Don't be easily carried away by conversation while getting your car tank refilled 

If unfortunately, you can’t stand your ground and get carried away by the talk-loving gas attendant, you should ask for a read-out slip that keeps a record of how much fuel has been dispensed afterwards.

Make sure your vehicle gets the very last drop of fuel

Another common trick used for scamming fuel buyers is to keep the fuel dispensed inside the pipe and not delivered to the fuel tank. A longer pipe will hold more fuel. Taking advantage of this, the attendant will try to keep as much of your paid amount of fuel as possible inside this pipeline. Just by rolling the pipe, the remaining fuel on the pine will return back to the gas dispenser. To not fall into this trap, you should insist to get the very last drop of fuel that you have paid for before letting the attendant roll the pipe back.

Longer dispenser pipe than usual might be the sign of petrol scam

Avoid adulterated fuel

Adulteration is a serious scam that is rampantly practised in various fuel stations in India. By mixing pure fuel with other chemicals, they could get a larger quantity for a lesser amount of pure petrol. There is barely any way to avoid this kind of scam in case you are already at a fuel bunk that serves adulterated fuel. Hence, you better make a right move at the first place by going to an authorized or trusted gas station.

To avoid adulterated fuel, customers should choose authorized or trusted gas stations

Watch out for electric chips

The fuel scamsters have stepped up their games with an even more subtle and sophisticated fraud that uses technology rather than manual tricks. To manipulate the fuel dispenser, a kind of electric chip has been invented that reduces the amount of fuel delivered. In this way, you will get less for what you have paid for. Just like the adulteration frauds above, the only way to avoid this is to go to a reliable gas station.

Electric chips are used to cheat customers at petrol pumps in India

Make sure the nozzle is unlocked

The fuel attendants can cheat the customer by starting and stopping the fuel flow repeatedly while keeping the nozzle unlocked. By interrupting the fuel flow, the fuel attendant manages to withhold some amount of fuel in the dispenser. So you should always make sure that the nozzle is locked into your car’s filler neck and there is no stop-start action while the fuel is being filled.

Make sure the fuel flow into your tank undisruptedly 

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