This article is also available in:
Русский (Russian) 
Uzbek
Private companies engaged in cleaning chimneys and ventilation have devised a new scheme to deceive residents of Tashkent. They began distributing supposedly official notices to homeowners, demanding urgent cleaning of chimneys and ventilation under the threat of gas cutoffs. The cost of this “service” was set at 80,000 soums. Authorities quickly responded to the situation, declaring that this was a fraudulent scheme with no connection to official organizations. Now we can only hope that these fraudsters, posing as firefighters, gas service workers, and emergency services, will finally face punishment.
The first report of the scammers came from the “Potrebitel.uz” community, where a fake document that had been distributed to residents of the Mirabad district was posted.
In the document, residents were required to conduct a chimney inspection, supposedly ordered by some Tashkent City Fire Prevention Society. Residents were threatened that if they did not clean their chimneys and obtain a corresponding certificate, their homes and apartments would be disconnected from the gas supply. Naturally, this service was charged at 80,000 soums.
The Mirabad District Administration, after the information surfaced on social media, denied any involvement in the incident, emphasizing that the district gas services also had no connection to this matter. Representatives of the district administration urged residents to check the IDs of all gas service employees visiting their homes.
Hududgaz Poytaxt also commented on the situation, stressing that the requirements mentioned in the fake letters were outdated. The notifications about mandatory preventive chimney inspections were being distributed by private companies, and they are not compulsory. In other words, you can choose to have the cleaning done or not, but no one will disconnect your gas.
All documents related to this situation have been submitted to the relevant authorities for further investigation.
The text has been translated by AI. For more accurate information, please refer to the Russian version of the article
