Cops hawk-eyed, however resort reserving frauds nonetheless on the rise in Odisha

Express News Service

BHUBANESWAR:  When Supreeth Rao, a wedding planner of Bengaluru-based Panigrahana Weddings, zeroed in on Mayfair Hotels in Puri for the vacation spot wedding ceremony of his two purchasers scheduled in December this yr, he was supplied a citation of `15 lakh for 50 rooms together with the marriage venue on the ‘hotel’s’ sponsored web site. 

While the provide gave the impression to be too interesting for Supreeth and his purchasers, the purported resort employees who spoke to him, requested for fee of fifty per cent of the quantity to e book the resort for December 7 and eight. However, the marriage planner and his purchasers determined to take a look on the resort’s property earlier than making the fee.

But, a lot to their shock, on arriving on the resort final week, the employees informed them that they’d obtained no such inquiry from Panigrahana Weddings for reserving the rooms and wedding ceremony venue. The worth for 40 rooms for December was `37 lakh. Besides, all of the rooms have been already bought out, they knowledgeable.
“Thankfully, we didn’t lose any money but my clients and my team had to go through the pain of coming all the way from Bengaluru to Puri for booking the property,” Supreeth mentioned. 

He additional knowledgeable that as an alternative of going to the precise web site, his back-end staff went to the sponsored Mayfair web site that appeared first on the web page throughout a Google search. “That sponsored link was where all the fraud began,” he added. 

Despite Puri police and the hoteliers attempting to catch maintain of the net resort room reserving frauds since final yr, circumstances proceed to be on the rise. Till April this yr, three such main circumstances have been reported. In truth on April 1, a Kolkata-based physician Kunal Shah misplaced `2.28 lakh whereas reserving Mayfair resort on-line for 3 days. 

Such is the extent of the menace that even the neighbouring Kolkata Police in December final yr issued a set of dos and dont’s for its vacationers reserving resorts in Puri on-line and ran a marketing campaign known as ‘The Hotel That Never Existed’. Puri Police has additionally issued a vacationer helpline 6370-967100 for individuals to report such frauds. Puri SP Kanwar Vishal Singh mentioned one or two circumstances are reported each month on a mean. 

Hotel reserving frauds on the rise in Odisha
Cyber criminals record pretend resort web sites on search engines like google and defraud unsuspecting prospects into making funds for room bookings.  Explaining the modus operandi, Singh mentioned the costs quoted in these pretend web sites are often low as in comparison with the precise costs of resort rooms. “The fraudsters offer too many attractive amenities and offers but keep the room rates very low to attract tourists,” the SP mentioned. 

Informing that this pattern began a yr again, the SP added that hoteliers have been requested to regulate pretend web sites within the identify of their properties. “It takes two minutes to find out such fake websites in a simple Google search and the hoteliers are doing the exercise. As a result, we have been able to deactivate many of these fake websites and even refund money back to the victims,” he mentioned. The SP, nevertheless, expressed concern over the truth that the incidents are nonetheless on the rise and so extra stringent measures can be put in place quickly.  

BHUBANESWAR:  When Supreeth Rao, a wedding planner of Bengaluru-based Panigrahana Weddings, zeroed in on Mayfair Hotels in Puri for the vacation spot wedding ceremony of his two purchasers scheduled in December this yr, he was supplied a citation of `15 lakh for 50 rooms together with the marriage venue on the ‘hotel’s’ sponsored web site. 

While the provide gave the impression to be too interesting for Supreeth and his purchasers, the purported resort employees who spoke to him, requested for fee of fifty per cent of the quantity to e book the resort for December 7 and eight. However, the marriage planner and his purchasers determined to take a look on the resort’s property earlier than making the fee.

But, a lot to their shock, on arriving on the resort final week, the employees informed them that they’d obtained no such inquiry from Panigrahana Weddings for reserving the rooms and wedding ceremony venue. The worth for 40 rooms for December was `37 lakh. Besides, all of the rooms have been already bought out, they knowledgeable.
“Thankfully, we didn’t lose any money but my clients and my team had to go through the pain of coming all the way from Bengaluru to Puri for booking the property,” Supreeth mentioned. googletag.cmd.push(perform() googletag.show(‘div-gpt-ad-8052921-2’); );

He additional knowledgeable that as an alternative of going to the precise web site, his back-end staff went to the sponsored Mayfair web site that appeared first on the web page throughout a Google search. “That sponsored link was where all the fraud began,” he added. 

Despite Puri police and the hoteliers attempting to catch maintain of the net resort room reserving frauds since final yr, circumstances proceed to be on the rise. Till April this yr, three such main circumstances have been reported. In truth on April 1, a Kolkata-based physician Kunal Shah misplaced `2.28 lakh whereas reserving Mayfair resort on-line for 3 days. 

Such is the extent of the menace that even the neighbouring Kolkata Police in December final yr issued a set of dos and dont’s for its vacationers reserving resorts in Puri on-line and ran a marketing campaign known as ‘The Hotel That Never Existed’. Puri Police has additionally issued a vacationer helpline 6370-967100 for individuals to report such frauds. Puri SP Kanwar Vishal Singh mentioned one or two circumstances are reported each month on a mean. 

Hotel reserving frauds on the rise in Odisha
Cyber criminals record pretend resort web sites on search engines like google and defraud unsuspecting prospects into making funds for room bookings.  Explaining the modus operandi, Singh mentioned the costs quoted in these pretend web sites are often low as in comparison with the precise costs of resort rooms. “The fraudsters offer too many attractive amenities and offers but keep the room rates very low to attract tourists,” the SP mentioned. 

Informing that this pattern began a yr again, the SP added that hoteliers have been requested to regulate pretend web sites within the identify of their properties. “It takes two minutes to find out such fake websites in a simple Google search and the hoteliers are doing the exercise. As a result, we have been able to deactivate many of these fake websites and even refund money back to the victims,” he mentioned. The SP, nevertheless, expressed concern over the truth that the incidents are nonetheless on the rise and so extra stringent measures can be put in place quickly.