A man looking to book a room at Hotel Shivalikview, Sector 17, ended up losing ₹86,525 from his bank account.
Debashish Mandal, a resident of Sector 32, Chandigarh, said on July 15, he wanted to book a room at Hotel Shivalikview. He said his manager looked up the hotel’s number online and called it. The person who answered the phone claimed to be the hotel manager. He shared that a room was available for ₹4,000 per night and offered 20% discount through credit card payment.
Mandal said he provided his credit card details as well as an OTP to book the room, after which ₹86,525 were deducted from his bank account.
On his complaint, a case under Sections 419 (cheating by personation), 420 (cheating), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 471 (using as genuine a forged document or electronic record) and 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code was registered at the Cyber Crime police station.
On July 23, police had arrested two Rajasthan natives for duping people through similar modus operandi.
They were arrested on the complaint of a man who lost ₹28,000 to online fraud while also trying to book a room at Hotel Shivalikview.
Police officials cautioned people to refrain from looking for phone numbers online and to obtain such information only from reliable sources.