Cyber frauds create duplicate hotel website to dupe tourists

Shimla, April 23

Cyber criminals are copying websites of hotels and opening accounts in their names to dupe tourists. “Cyber fraudsters have put up a parallel website and opened a bank account in the name of our hotel,” says Anupam Kapoor, owner of Hotel Sangeet in Shimla.

“We lodged a complaint with the cyber police here after a customer told us that he had deposited Rs 2,000 as advance into an account opened in the hotel’s name in Federal Bank, Chandigarh, for booking a room from May 22 to 24,” he says.

“About 12 to 15 customers, who have been duped of Rs 2 lakh to Rs 2.5 lakh, have reported the fraud to us,” says Kapoor. Earlier, tourists were misled to deposit money on the pretext of advance booking in a bank account in Jaipur,” he adds.

“While cyber criminals are running a website in the name of our hotel, our website is not visible. Whenever a customer or tourist searches for our hotel, the duplicate website opens,” he claims.