E-Paper
Chandigarh | Man trying to book hotel room online falls prey to fraudsters
Complainant Jaswinder Singh Bedi said he had looked up on Google for the contact number of hotel Shivalik View. He found a mobile number and rang on it. The person on the other end asked him to share an OTP sent on his phone. When he did so, ₹28,400 was deducted from his IDFC Credit Card.
Two persons were arrested for duping a person on pretext of booking a room in Hotel Shivalik View.
The accused have been identified as Ravi, 24, and Lokesh, 23, both hailing from Rajasthan. Complainant Jaswinder Singh Bedi said he had looked up on Google for the contact number of hotel Shivalik View. He found a mobile number and rang on it. The person on the other end asked him to share an OTP sent on his phone. When he did so, ₹28,400 was deducted from his IDFC Credit Card.
Following this, he lodged a police complaint. A team of cyber police station arrested the accused from Mathura and recovered an ATM card using which they had transferred the money.
They have been booked under Sections 419 (cheating by personation), 420 (Cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), 468 (Forgery for purpose of cheating), 471 (fraudulently or dishonestly uses as genuine any) and 120B (criminal conspiracy to commit an offence punishable with death) of the Indian Penal Code.
Police said scammers/fraudsters upload their own mobile numbers on the website of various existing essential services i.e hotels, grocery shops, wine shops, courier services etc. This way when they are contacted by the public, they manage to cheat them. It is advised to avoid looking up contact numbers for essential services on Google or social media platforms, said an official.
