Now travel agents are the target of Cyber Crime
Mangaluru, July 30, 2021: Naveen, the owner of Sharanam Tours and Travels of Padavinangady got a phone call on Thursday evening for a tour booking.
The caller introduced himself as an officer from CISF and wanted to book two cars. While any travel agency would be more than happy for a big booking, Naveen, who has in the past provided his vehicles to various government agencies had a doubt about the caller.
But the caller, who introduced himself as Bablu Kumar, was very polite and dignified. He said there is a need for two Cars- an Innova and a Creta to travel from Mangaluru to Belagavi. The ‘booking’ was from Friday to Sunday.
When Naveen asked for ID proof, the caller sent him the Aadhar Card and also his ‘CISF ID card.’
Also read: Covid test mandatory to enter Karnataka
Naveen agreed to provide two cars for the service as per the talks and sent them to the airport on Friday morning.
The cars were waiting at the airport to welcome the ‘officers.’
Naveen got a call again from the person on Friday morning asking for his bank details. As he did not have a PayTM account, he asked the caller to transfer it through GPay or PhonePay.
The person said his senior Colonel would call Naveen. Within few minutes Naveen got a call from another person asking for details. By now Naveen’s suspicion increased.
“The caller sent a link on my Whatsapp and asked me to agree to pay Rs 2 to confirm my account. I paid Rs 2. The caller said he received the money and immediately returned the money. He said he has sent another link of Rs 20,000 and asked me to pay and he would return the money to the same account. Now it was clear that this was a fraud. I told him that I had provided service to other government agencies too in the past but none of the payment was like this and told him this was a fraud call,” Naveen told The Canara Post.
The caller disconnected the phone immediately.
The car drivers at the airport were surprised as the ‘Officer’ had booked two Tempo Travellers in a similar way. Luckily the owner of the TT too had not made any payment.
Naveen immediately filed a complaint with the Cyber Crime wing. He has also decided to bring this to the notice of CISF and the Police Commissioner.
“Travel agencies are already suffering due to lockdown and hike in fuel price. At this time these fraudsters are trying to cheat us. I have booked a complaint so that nobody else is cheated by these people,” he added.
“We know something about cyber crime. So we are alert. People who do not know much about mobile and cyber frauds should be careful,” he added.
