Bhubaneswar: A doctor from Howrah in neighbouring West Bengal lost Rs 2.28 lakh while trying to book a suite in a seaside 5-star hotel in Odisha’s Puri town in April this year.
The victim, Kunal Shah, lodged a complaint with police earlier this month, alleging that he was duped by a cyber fraudster after being directed to call one Satish Sharma while trying to book a room in Mayfair Heritage Hotel online on April 1. All rooms in the hotel were booked and the person informed him about availability of one suite for which Shah was asked to pay the full amount of Rs 29,000 for 3 days with complementary breakfast, a TOI report said quoting the FIR.
Shah then received the bank account of the hotel on his WhatsApp. Following which, he shared his credit card details. He received two messages about transaction of Rs 1.3 lakh and Rs 98,000 from his credit card the same evening. He called the person, who told him that it was computer typo and assured a refund.
Shah, however, called the hotel to get more details and was told by one Mr Nath that no one by the name Satish worked there.
While the victim has sought action against Mayfair Heritage Hotel, its GM Anirvan Sanyal told the national daily that they had come across similar fraud cases in recent past and have put up an advisory on their home page requesting tourists to book tickets from authentic platforms.
In March, A woman from Kolkata was robbed of Rs 96,000 after she clicked on a link to book a hotel for her stay in Puri. She was asked to make a payment of Rs 12,000 to a UPI ID as an advance and the fraudster again contacted her for a repayment, saying that the transaction had failed due to technical errors. On clicking the link which he had sent, she lost Rs. 84,000 from her bank account.
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