With just over a fortnight left for the commencement of the Mahakumbh in the Sangam city of Prayagraj, fraudsters are now too active to fool the pilgrims and tourists in the name of booking hotel rooms, tents and cottages for the 45- day long religious congregation.
However Uttar Pradesh police too have started taking action against cyber fraudsters and have arrested four vicious miscreants who were booking tents and hotels by creating a fake website for the Mela on Thursday evening.The accused work in creating websites in a software company in Varanasi.Sources here said police have recovered three laptops, two mobiles and six ATM cards from them. The police were searching for them for a long time. By posting photos of big hotels of Prayagraj city, they were charging huge amount from the people by booking them.
During Mahakumbh, tourists are being made victims of fraud every day in the name of booking in famous hotels of the city. Cyber police also came to know about a fake website running in the name of Hotel Kanha Shyam, situated in Civil Lines area of Prayagraj . Police investigation found that the site was being operated from Haryana.
On December 16, Hotel Kanha Shyam General Manager Rupesh Kumar Singh had filed a case at the Civil Lines police station for booking by creating a fake website, kanhashyam.hotelallahabad.com, in the name of his hotel. After the case was registered, the police asked the domain company through mail as to which city the said website was being operated and came to know it was from Haryana.
Last month, Cyber Station Police had registered a case after receiving a complaint of fraud from websites like Kumbhcottagebooking.com, Kumbhcottagebooking.com etc. in the name of tent booking in Mahakumbh. At the same time, now the cyber police claims that the game of fraud running through fake websites has been stopped. So far, about 54 websites have been closed.Police has issued advisory and has warned the people .This is how you can identify a fake website:
Check the URL carefully. The website URL should start with “https://” and have a lock icon. Book only from government or certified agencies and Do not download the APK file obtained from website or WhatsApp.