Hyderabad: A city-based devotee planning a pilgrimage to Tirupati was duped by cybercriminals to the tune of 2.8 lakh. While searching online to book a hotel in the temple town for their stay during the darshan, the complainant found a hotel, Padmavathy Nilayam, and contacted them. As per their instructions, he transferred 2.82 lakh to certain accounts as directed by the fraudsters. In the process, he also received 300 as refund.
Police said the complainant, a 49-year-old self-employed man from Koti, searched for hotels in Tirupati for their stay during the pilgrimage, found contact details of a hotel, and connected on the number given on the website.
Under the guise of hotel staff, cybercriminals confirmed to him that a room was available and sent him a QR code for paying 3,000, making him pay 6,000 in multiple transactions citing technical issues, police said.
The criminals then asked the complainant to pay 2,560 as GST on the booking towards GST and other charges, which they claimed were refundable. The criminals made him pay amounts ranging up to 90,000 in multiple transactions, police added.
“On the whole, he transferred 2.82 lakh in 13 transactions in a short duration. The criminals even sent him some refund vouchers, but they were also fake, and he received only 300 as a refund against his transactions,” a Cyber Crime officer said.
Despite these invalid refund vouchers, when they were pressing him to transfer more funds towards the hotel booking, the complainant grew suspicious and lodged a complaint with the Hyderabad Cyber Crime police last week. Cyber Crime police registered a case and started an investigation.
Meanwhile, police urged devotees to make transactions through trusted platforms for booking rooms or for making any financial transactions to avoid being duped.