A 26-year-old man from Bihar has been arrested by the cyber cell of the Delhi Police Crime Branch for allegedly running a sophisticated online fraud by creating a fake website resembling a popular travel and hotel booking platform.
The accused, identified as Pratosh Kumar, a resident of Sheikhpura district in Bihar, reportedly impersonated a customer support executive of Booking.com to deceive unsuspecting users. By offering fake booking confirmations and refund assistance, he allegedly tricked victims into sharing sensitive information, leading to unauthorised financial transactions.
According to Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime) Aditya Gautam, the arrest followed an investigation into a complaint where a victim lost Rs57,186 while attempting to book a hotel from the United States. Investigators found that the defrauded amount was later used to pay a credit card bill belonging to the accused.
Through technical surveillance and digital tracing, police located and arrested Kumar last week. During the operation, officials recovered three mobile phones and a forged Aadhaar card, which were allegedly used to impersonate authorised representatives of the online service platform.
Further examination revealed that the seized mobile devices were linked to 29 cyber crime complaints registered on the national cyber crime reporting portal, indicating the scale of the fraud.
The investigation is ongoing as police work to identify additional victims and uncover the full extent of the cyber scam.
