A driving experience in Mumbai

I am writing this letter in the hope that it will reach out to a large set of car owners in Mumbai and they will be able to benefit from my experience.
A couple of days back I was driving from home in the evening in my ALTO and was crossing Bandra on Linking road. Suddenly a person crossed the road and pointed hurriedly at my bonnet and mentioned the words sparks and "aag". I didnt pay much attention and thought that I had misheard the person. Then another person on my left came out and again pointed at my bonnet and mentioned that he could see severe sparking.
I panicked and ground the car to a halt (near the amarsons petrol pump). A third person came out of a parked car and said that he too could see the sparks. By this time I had switched the engine off and was pushing the car to the left hand side of the road. This person then asked me to open the bonnet and start the engine. I opened the bonnet and went to start the engine and to my horror I could actually see sparking near the battery of the car.
The person mentioned that he knew of a maruti service station near by which would be able to do the needful. Leaving the car with my colleague, I walked to the petrol pump but the service station was closed. There was a person however standing outside it and was carrying some sort of tools on him as well. He agreed to look at the car and help out. Upon inspection, he mentioned that the "alternator" was problematic and had to be serviced. He was not able to give a clear indication of the costs though.
For some reason I called up my mechanic at that point in time and he immediately warned me of this modus operandi of fooling people. What had actually happened that a team of three identify cars of old make and target them. Upon opening my bonnet, when I went to start the engine, one of the members loosened the battery wire which links to the "coil" because of which the sparking occurred.
The experience was quite traumatic and I was compelled to write this mail when some one again tried to pull the same gag on me at the Bandra-end of Bandra Worli Sea Link.