Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): With the onset of the monsoon and a surge in travel plans, cyber fraudsters seem to have become active, targeting tourists through fake hotel bookings, tour packages and pilgrimage registrations.
Cyber police have warned that scammers are exploiting the popularity of Madhya Pradesh's tourist destinations as well as domestic and international travel, leaving victims with financial losses.
According to cyber police officials, monitoring has revealed that fraudsters are flooding social media with attractive videos and photographs of destinations like Pachmarhi, Bhedaghat, Mandu and Orchha, offering heavy discount on hotels, resorts, cottages and tour packages.
Once travellers transfer advance booking amounts, the suspects disappear by switching off their phones and deleting social media accounts.
Cyber criminals are also luring people with fake travel packages to Dubai and Thailand, besides targeting pilgrims planning Amarnath and Char Dham Yatra.
Fake websites and links promising helicopter tickets, hotel reservations, pilgrimage registrations and VIP darshan are being circulated online.
Victims often realise the fraud only when they fail to receive confirmed bookings before their scheduled journey, cyber officials added.
Additional DCP Shailendra Singh Chauhan has urged people not to make payments on the basis of social media advertisements or viral promotional videos.
He advised people to book only through official websites or trusted travel agencies, verify hotel details directly over the phone and avoid transferring advance payments to unknown bank accounts or UPI IDs without proper verification.
Past cases
In one such case reported in May this year, a family from Arera Colony in Bhopal lost Rs 48,000 while booking helicopter tickets for the Amarnath Yatra through a fraudulent website.
After receiving the payment, the scammers neither issued tickets nor responded to the family. A subsequent inquiry revealed that the website was fake.
In March, Indore Crime Branch arrested four suspects from Surat for allegedly cheating people across Madhya Pradesh and several other states by offering fake Madhya Pradesh tourism packages.
The gang is accused of defrauding victims of lakhs of rupees. In 2019, the Bhopal Cyber Crime Branch busted another gang by arresting two suspects from Misrod for allegedly duping 31 people of Rs 25 lakh through fake travel bookings.
