VIJAYAWADA: Executive officer (EO) of Sri Durga Malleswara Swamy Varla Devasthnam (SDMSD) MV Suresh Babu lodged a complaint with city Commissioner of Police (CP) Ch Dwaraka Tirumala Rao against four fake websites for offering various temple services illegally on Tuesday.
The four websites-kanakadurgatemple.org, edarshan.org, epooja.co.in and eprathana.com-were found to be offering online bookings for darshanam tickets and other services available in the temple.
In the complaint, Suresh Babu mentioned that they came across the sites through their sources and noticed that all the four sites were created by unknown persons in an attempt to cheat devotees by accepting payments from visitors willing to avail the services.
“Though we did not receive any cheating complaint from devotees regarding the fake websites, we lodged a complaint to bring awareness among the devotees and to avoid future problems,” said the EO.
Responding to the complaint, Tirumala Rao instructed the cyber crime police to file a case and take necessary action against the accused.
“It’s an attempt to cheat the public. None of the sites were launched by the government. So far, no incident of fraud has taken place. We are taking legal opinion for further proceedings,” said Tirumala Rao.
According to the sources, it is also believed that EOs of Venugopala Swamy Temple (Nemali) and Sri Lakshmi Tirupatamma Temple (Penuganchiprolu) have lodged a similar complaint against the same four sites some days ago.