Kolkata: Bidhannagar Cyber Crime Police Station has nabbed a youth for allegedly cheating several tourists by changing contact number on the internet of a hotel situated in Puri. The accused identified as Debojit Dey was arrested on Monday afternoon. He was remanded to 3-day police custody after producing him before the Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate, Bidhannagar on Tuesday.
According to police sources, Soumitra Chakraborty, who owns a hotel in Puri and is a resident of Lalkuthi, Purbayan in Airport area lodged a complaint at Bidhannagar Cyber Crime Police Station on July 6 against unknown miscreants alleging fraud in the name of his hotel. He informed police about several customers who alleged that they had paid for the rooms in the hotel but it did not get booked. The cheated customers told Chakraborty they had called up on a mobile number provided on a popular search engine.
They spoke to someone on that number and later transferred money to the account provided by the receiver of
the call.
The customers were also provided with a receipt which was obviously a forged one. When tourists visited the hotel on their designated dates found that they were cheated.
While probing the case, the sleuths found that someone or some persons had changed the contact number of the hotel using the 'suggest an edit' option.
As a result,the tourists could only see the new number which was used by the fraudsters. When prospective customers used to call, the person on the phone used to tell them the tariff details of the rooms. They also used to promise the tourists with complementary services.
The sleuths called up on that number but found it switched off. Later, the phone number was put on the monitoring device so that when the number gets active police will be notified.
A Few days ago, the sleuths found that the number was activated again. Immediately, the mobile phone tower location was identified and Dey was arrested from Alipurduar. Sources informed that more persons are involved in this crime. A Search is on to nab them.