Fraudsters dupe man of Rs 15,000 via fake SGNP link

Representational Image

Mumbaikars planning to book one of the many events or trails organised at Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP) are being warned by park officials to not use the mobile number available on the Google page and use instead the official website of the park that has the correct numbers.

SGNP officials have said that some unknown people have added their number to the Google page and are cheating people out of money through it.

Shailendra Mishra, a resident of Daman, who had wanted to visit SGNP during a trip here was duped out of Rs 15,330 after he called the mobile number given on the Google page.

After Mishra called the number, he got a return call from the fraudster through another number saying that he should click on the link sent to him and make an online payment. When Mishra followed the instructions, he found that Rs 15,330 had been deducted from his account.

The fake number listed on the Google page

Mishra filed a police complaint with Kasturba Marg Police station on October 21.

Sanjay Gandhi National Park authorities have taken serious note of this and have posted a message on their official Facebook page stating, "FRAUD ALERT! Dear friends and followers of SGNP please take note that there is a fraud being played out on the bookings of SGNP events.

The problem lies in the spurious phone number (marked in Red) mentioned on the 'Google Page' about SGNP. That number '9330272267' is a fraud."

Speaking to mid-day SGNP Field Director and Chief Conservator of Forest Anwar Ahmed said, "At least one individual we know has been duped out of a large amount of money. While we have initiated appropriate legal action against this and are following up on it, we request people to not use that contact number and use the correct one '022-28868686' as mentioned on SGNP's official website. We would also like to appeal to the people that they should help us by reporting the fraudulent number on the Google page and by spreading the word."

The correct numbers on SGNP's official website

Soon after SGNP posted about the fraud on its official page, the mobile number has been switched off. Sources from SGNP told mid-day that they have already approached the police about the same and investigation is in progress.

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