A Cyber Fraud

They spread their net wide on the web or dangle their baits through SMS or WhatsApp. Like anglers waiting for the fish to rise to their baits, they let you first be introduced to their offer and then con you into paying for some benefits or services that do not exist.

Your money is gone by the time you realize that you have been cheated. In the end, your loss is their gain – some quick bucks without much effort or risk. I took such a bait only by half and lost some money but then rescued myself just in time to prevent further losses.

Srisailam is a place of religious tourism about 230 km from Hyderabad. A year back I wanted to visit the place and was looking for a suitable accommodation on the internet for spending two nights there. Though the temples of Srisailam and the scenic beauty of its hills and lakes attract hordes of tourists every month, there are not many good hotels in the town. After a lot of search, I found a hotel named Pathaleswara Sadan and tried to contact it through the landline number found in the website, but my calls were not answered. Then I got a mobile number mentioned within cloud mark with the photo of the hotel in the background (photo given below).

I rang that number and a lady answered my call. She asked me to pay an advance of Rs. 2000 online for booking a room for two nights.

Payments through Unified Payment Interface (UPI) have of late become very popular in India, Google Pay or GPay being one of the commonly used platforms for the transactions. In UPI  payments, mobile phones are linked to bank accounts and money can be transferred online from one bank account to another in real time, using phone numbers.

It is now quite usual for the hotels to ask for advance for booking from a customer calling from a faraway place through UPI. On two occasions earlier, I had paid advance through GPay as advised by hotel manager and immediately got confirmation of booking through WhatsApp and email. There were absolutely no problems in booking and settling the tariffs thereafter while checking out of the hotels.

So I made payment of Rs. 2000 through GPay as demanded by the lady and rang that number again for confirmation of booking. This time a male voice answered my call and asked for payment of Rs.1000 more, saying that he needed an advance of Rs. 3000 for booking. But after I paid the additional amount, he called me back and said that he was not able to reconcile the two transactions with one booking and needed a single UPI transaction for the advance. He asked me to transfer Rs. 3000 in a single transaction, promising to refund the amount already paid by me immediately. I found his point rather strange and deceitful, so I insisted that he should first refund the already paid amount and then only I would make the single transaction as required by him. He tried to convince me but I was not agreeable to it.

After waiting for an hour, he called again to know what I would like to do about my booking. When I firmly said that I would not make any more payment without refund of the paid amount, he shouted some expletives at me and hung up. I realized that it was a fraud, and thanked myself for limiting my losses by calling his bluff at the right time.

I tweeted to Hyderabad Police, complaining about this cyber fraud with all details. Police referred my complaint to twitter ID of another police station, saying that the place of crime came under its jurisdiction. I expected police to investigate the fraud, recover my lost money and also take down the contact number on the internet so that no one fell into the trap like I did. But I did not hear anything from them further though I pursued the matter for some time through Twitter.

Cyber fraud is a growing concern nowadays. There has been a boom in online businesses with IT revolution and thereafter because of Coronavirus pandemic. Services such as coaching, tuition, job search, loan, hotel booking, advertising, matrimony and issue of credit cards are rendered online, which requires a level on trust between client and service provider as they never meet each other physically. Fraudsters are creating faking services and making money by misusing the trust of the people. According to newspaper reports, people of Telangana state have lost Rs. 157 cr. rupees in February, 2024 alone. Law enforcement authorities are still not well equipped to handle these crimes.