Mumbai: Online fraudster dupes people with fake bookings at resort

Representative image. Pic/Istock

An offence has been registered against an unidentified person for allegedly duping people by linking his phone number to the website of a city-based resort and taking money from them online for bookings, police said on Monday.

Based on a complaint lodged by the resort, the police registered a case under section 420 (cheating) and other relevant provisions of the Indian Penal Code and Information Technology Act, an official said.

Proprietors of Green Village Resort based in the western suburb of Malwani approached the police after many people started arriving at the facility claiming to have made a booking, he said.

Also read: BJP demands CBI probe into conman Sukesh Chandrashekhar's claims of bribing AAP

Investigations revealed that the accused allegedly linked his phone number to the website of the resort and started taking bookings. On searching for the resort online, people found the fraudster's phone number listed as contact, the official said.

The fraudster had allegedly charged people anywhere between Rs 2,000 and Rs 90,000 for bookings in the last 15 days, he said.

The resort has since stopped taking bookings online and has instead urged patrons to visit the facility and not make payments online, the official said.

This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed, agencies. Mid-day accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability, trustworthiness, reliability and data of the text. Mid-day management/mid-day.com reserves the sole right to alter, delete or remove (without notice) the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever.