Shocking! Noida woman searches for hotel on Google, falls for WhatsApp scam, loses Rs. 1 lakh
In yet another scary incident, a Noida woman became a victim of an online scam after she searched for hotels in Kedarnath on Google. The 36-years old woman fell for a WhatsApp scam where the scammers shared multiple QR codes with her over the instant messaging platform on the pretext of advance payment for booking hotels and ended up stealing ₹95,604 in total. The online fraud is particularly dangerous as the woman did not click on any suspicious links that were sent to her and was just trying to look for hotels using Google. Read on to know how this scam was pulled off.
According to PTI, the incident has been reported at the Noida Sector 113 police station and an FIR has been lodged. The officials have said that an investigation has started to look for the perpetrators.
As per the complaint, the incident took place on May 18, although the FIR was lodged on Monday, July 25. The woman, who is a resident of Noida Sector 75, claimed that she lost almost Rs. 1 lakh after the scammer shared multiple QR codes with her. The incident began when the victim first began looking for hotels in Kedarnath for a trip.
“The complainant stated that in May she was searching for a hotel in Kedarnath on Google for a trip she had planned for June. A couple of days after the search, she got a call from an unknown number in which the caller identified himself as a representative of a hotel in Kedarnath,” a police officer told PTI.
“Later, that representative, who identified himself as Nitin Kumar, contacted the woman over Whatsapp and shared pictures of a hotel and other details, including the tariff, of the facility.” the officer added.
The scammer then asked the woman to make an advance payment of Rs. 2,000, which was half the booking amount. He
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