Kolkata, Aug 4 (IANS) With less than two months left for Durga Puja, Kolkata Police have started an awareness campaign on a new type of cyber fraud, calling it the ‘online five-star scam’.

Through this new scam, cyber fraudsters are innovatively trapping travellers. They have started deceiving travellers by calling them to book luxury hotels.

According to Kolkata Police officers, many travellers are losing money by falling into the trap of booking hotels in various tourist destinations of the country, especially in Puri.

A police source said on Monday that the matter came to light recently after a resident of the Parnasree area in South Kolkata lost Rs 70,000 while booking a hotel for Rs 7,000 for a trip to Puri.

“We started receiving similar complaints that cyber fraudsters are setting traps not only in the country, but also for hotel bookings abroad. It is a kind of online five-star scam by cyber fraudsters. We have started warning people about this through social media,” said a city police officer.

Police sources said that those who are trying to book hotels in various tourist destinations in the country and abroad are becoming the targets of these cyber fraudsters.

“A large number of people search for hotels online or on search engines. In many cases, fraudsters are creating fake websites of famous hotels. Their numbers are given there. Travellers are getting into trouble if they call the fraudsters’ numbers given on the fake websites. Especially in the case of hotel bookings abroad, they are also lured with huge discounts,” said the police.

Police said that a stronger campaign will be carried out to raise awareness among people about these cyber frauds before the Puja, when a large number of people from West Bengal go on vacation during Puja holidays.

The police pointed out that these fraudsters also keep an eye online to see who is trying to book a continental hotel or a four or five-star hotel. They also try to find out that information on social media.

“In many cases, cyber fraudsters themselves call tourists using social media sources. Sometimes they introduce themselves as a travel agency, sometimes as an official of a luxury hotel, saying that they want to assist tourists in helping with the booking process,” the police said.

They even ask tourists to fill out forms to get crucial information. Then a QR code is sent to ‘confirm’ the booking.

“They will have to scan that QR code, and some OTPs will be sent to his phone, which he will have to share. By doing this, financial information is shared with fraudsters and they extract huge amounts of money from the tourist’s bank account,” said the police.

–IANS

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