Kalamboli resident duped of ₹20K while booking rooms in Shirdi online

An attempt to reserve rooms in a well-known hotel in Shirdi for a family trip led to Kalamboli resident being duped of ₹20,000 in a matter of minutes

Kalamboli resident, Sagar Godke (21) didn’t think that the casual act of room reservation online could lead to him getting scammed. An attempt to reserve two rooms in a well-known hotel in Shirdi for a family trip led to Godke being duped of ₹20,000 in a matter of minutes.

A Kalamboli resident was duped of ₹20K while booking rooms in Shirdi online. (HT FILE PHOTO)

Random search on Google for the contact number of the hotel led to the scam.

“I was looking for a room in one of the most sought-out hotels while visiting Shirdi. To avoid problems with accommodation on reaching Shirdi, I thought it’s better to make advance reservations. I searched for the hotel online and found a website along with the contact details since it had over 10,000 reviews. I assumed the site to be genuine,” said Godke.

The person assured Godke of getting the required number of rooms reserved and asked him to pay a token amount for advance booking. “Since we don’t miss out on room reservation, I paid an advance of ₹1,200. I sought for receipt of the amount paid. The scammer at first was reluctant but eventually asked me to pay ₹5 through a QR code. It was while using this QR code that I realised that he debited another 19,980/- from my bank account,” said Godke.

On August 23, Godke filed a case with the cyber police.

The number through which the amount was transferred was named after Lucknow Kirana. “We eventually travelled to Shirdi and raised the matter with the hotel personally. They informed us that the details available online were fraudulent. The hotel management too has raised the matter with the online department of Shirdi Temple Trust,” he said.

Senior Inspector Vijay Waghmare, Cyber Crime Cell, said to be looking into the matter. “The matter has been forwarded to Kalamboli police station and they are likely to contact both the complainant as well as seek for technical assistance from the cell. We will provide the account details where the funds were transferred as well as the call details that will help in further investigation,” he said.