BHUBANESWAR: Amid an increasing number of online hotel booking frauds, hotel owners of the state were on Tuesday urged to collaborate with police for better handling of such cyber frauds. The issue was discussed during a meeting between the CID-CB, Odisha, and members of the Hotel and Restaurants Owners Association, chaired by Additional DGP, CID-CB, and Arun Bothra. More and more such cases are being reported in the state, particularly Puri.
The last cases of hotel booking fraud were filed on July 27 and 31. During the investigation, CID-CB found out that the cyber frauds are creating fake websites of hotels in Odisha and are especially targeting hotels in Puri where tourist flow is maximum during the season.
While travellers try to book rooms, these fake websites lead them to bank accounts of scammers for depositing money. When the tourists reach the hotel with fake booking vouchers they come to know about the scam. It is seen that in most of the cases, the tourists leave without lodging a police complaint making it difficult for the police to take appropriate action, officials said.
IGP Sh Shefeen Ahmed spoke about different kinds of cyber scams in the hotel industry. Hotel owners were sensitised to bring to the notice of the police all the cyber-crimes cases concerning hotel room booking at the earliest for necessary legal action.