Cybercriminals mimic Goan travel sites, misuse brands, logos to dupe customers

PANAJI: When Bengaluru resident Waheeda B booked a five-day tour to Dubai for her family, she had little inkling that her vacation plans would turn into a nightmare. The lady, who claims to have booked her flights through a Goa-based agency, had fallen prey to a new online ticket booking scam.
The Bengaluru resident is not the only one. R Trivedi, D P Singh, Sushmita G and several others from various parts of Goa have been duped of their hard-earned money by scammers who design similar-looking websites with legitimate addresses and registration information with only the contact number changed.
According to a complaint filed with Goa Police’s cybercrime division, cybercriminals are misusing the brands, logos and identities of Goan travel agencies and then charging money for flight tickets and hotel bookings. The scamsters then issue fake flight tickets and hotel reservation details to the unsuspecting customer and then stop responding to calls.
Alarmed by these instances, the Goa Chamber of Commerce and Industry has issued an alert and asked the authorities to crack down on such fraud.
“Online scamsters sitting in far-off places like Mewat, Begusarai, Dhubri, Alwar, Asansol and Surat are creating fraudulent websites in the name and style of reputed travel agents, where fake websites are created and people are invited with good offers,” said GCCI president Ralph de Sousa in a public advisory.
TOI has not named the travel agent and has withheld the full names of the victims.
“Money is taken in advance from innocent people who booked online bona fide believing that it was the website of a reputed travel agency,” said de Sousa.
In October, TOI had reported how cyber criminals were using Google to steal money from tourists trying to book a holiday in Goa. Many hotels have found that their telephone numbers listed online with search engines have been changed.
Upon receiving neither a confirmed ticket nor hotel booking despite paying money, the customers dig a bit deeper and get in touch with the actual travel agency and demand for their money to be returned or their tickets.
“We had not done any bookings for the people who called us, and we are unaware who is masquerading as our travel agency. We were alarmed to see a website that looks similar to our website with our building address in Goa, but the contact number and email address were different,” said the owner of a Margao-based agency, who filed a complaint with the cyber cell.
“The public is hereby cautioned not to fall into the trap of making bookings with such websites that turn out to be fake and just a money-making racket to cheat people. They are using Goan addresses,” said a GCCI official.