Mumbai News: Khar Doctor Loses ₹36 Thousand In Boat Booking Scam

Police in Khar have booked an unidentified individual for cheating a doctor who lost Rs36,791 after booking a spot at the AB Celestial Boat through a fake website.

AB Celestial is a four-tier boat offering dining services, docked at the Bandra-Worli Sea Link. Dr Pranjal Kodkani, 52, filed a complaint against the unidentified individual at the Khar police station, leading to the registration of an FIR on September 3.

According to the FIR, Dr Kodkani, a resident of Khar (West), wanted to celebrate her son’s birthday on September 1 on the boat. On August 31, around 10pm, she searched for its website but ended up on a fake one. She found a contact number on the site and dialled it. The fraudster who answered claimed to be an employee of AB Celestial and informed her that the booking rate was Rs6,800. She agreed and asked to pay via GPay, but the fraudster refused and provided her with Punjab National Bank account number instead. Dr Kodkoni transferred the amount to the account. The fraudster then messaged her to call the same number in the evening.

When she called back, the fraudster told her that to receive the booking receipt and ticket, she needed to complete a process via GPay. He sent her a receipt via GPay and instructed her to enter ‘29991’ as the receipt number, warning that if she did not follow the process, the booking would be cancelled. She followed the instructions, and Rs29,991 was withdrawn from her account. When the fraudster told her she had done the process incorrectly and pressured her to repeat it, Dr Kodkoni grew suspicious and demanded the return of Rs29,991, but the fraudster evaded her request.

Realising she had been scammed, Dr Kodkoni approached the police. The police registered the case under the Information Technology Act.