A man in his 70s was duped out of nearly Rs 90,000 after he tried to book a hotel through a website he found on the Internet earlier this month.
The police have managed to recover the entire amount.
A senior officer of the Bidhannagar Commissionerate said Barindra Dey was trying to book a hotel for a family vacation and had been surfing the Internet for it.
Dey came across a website that offered good deals on hotels and homestays, the officer added.
“Dey found one according to his preference and paid for it online through the website. However, he did not receive any booking confirmation or a receipt,” the officer said.
“A few minutes after he made the payment, Dey received multiple SMS alerts from his bank that Rs 89,505 was deducted from his account,” the officer added.
Dey then tried calling the numbers on the website through which he was trying to book the hotel but could not get through.
“After calling the numbers several times Dey realised that he had been cheated. He went to the cyber crime police station in Salt Lake and lodged a complaint,” the officer said.
Dey showed the police the text message alerts he had received from the bank.
Officers probing the case then checked where the money had been transferred to and zeroed in on a bank account.
“We immediately seized the account where Dey’s money had been transferred,” the officer said.
The police then managed to return the sum that had been siphoned off from Dey’s account to him.
Another officer said they managed to trace the account holder. “We are hoping to make arrests soon,” the officer said.
A police officer said that genuine websites usually do not have a mobile number as their “customer care” number and do not ask customers to transfer money to any individual’s bank account.