Man claims to be US-based firm employee, cons Gurugram travel agency of ₹55 lakh using stolen credit cards

The accused allegedly booked 40 air tickets, using about 13 credit cards of the US-based company, in June, which later turned out to be fraudulent transactions, the police said.

A man, claiming to be an employee of a US-based company, allegedly conned a city-based travel agency of ₹55 lakh by booking air tickets using credits cards that were either stolen or cloned, the police said.

A man who claimed to be an employee of a US-based company duped a Gurugram-based travel agency of ₹55 lakh by using stolen or cloned credit cards. (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

The accused allegedly booked 40 air tickets, using about 13 credit cards of the US-based company, in June, which later turned out to be fraudulent transactions, the police said.

An FIR was filed in this regard on Saturday at the cybercrime police station under sections 420 (cheating) and 406 (criminal breach of trust) of the IPC, and 66D of the IT Act, said Sandeep Kumar, head constable, who is the investigating officer in the case.

“We have just filed the FIR. We are yet to get in touch with the police in the US, but we would do that soon,” the officer said.

The officer said that the credit cards allegedly belonged to foreign nationals and might have been stolen or cloned by the accused. “People, mostly Nigerian nationals, also used the air tickets to travel,” he said.

According to the FIR, the accused was referred to the agency by another company, with whom they conducted business, on June 13. The accused contacted the officials of the travel agency through WhatsApp and booked tickets worth ₹55 lakh.

For booking tickets, the accused sent photos of the front and back side of 13 credit cards, all issued by the same bank.

After the tickets were booked and by the time the travel agency noticed that the email addresses used by the accused were different from the company he was representing, most of the trips were completed.

In August, the bank, which had issued the credit cards that were used by the accused, asked the airline to refund the money as the transactions were fraudulent. The airline, in turn, asked the travel agency to refund the money.

“The accused used a US phone number, but we are not sure about his identity. He could be calling from any country using that number,” the officer said.