Maharashtra: Man tries to get refund for air tickets, loses Rs 4.8 lakh (representational image)
In yet another incident of cyber fraud, a man lost Rs 4.8 lakh while he was seeking refunds for his canceled air tickets. The man from Maharashtra’s Thane city googled for contact details of the airline to seek refunds for his canceled trip to Nairobi, an official said on Wednesday.
In his police complaint, the man said that he had booked return tickets to the Kenyan capital Nairobi as he and his friend wanted to visit the city of Mombasa. The tickets were booked for April 29 and May 5 and he paid Rs 1.46 lakh for them.
However, his plans changed and he decided to cancel the tickets and seek refunds, said the official. He filled out a form for a refund on the website of the airline on April 11. When the complainant could not get through to the airline’s helpline, he ran a Google search and got what he thought to be the contact number of the airline, said the official.
He dialed the number and was told that the airline’s technical team would get in touch with him and facilitate the refund, the official said. A man then spoke to the complainant and said he was eligible for a refund of Rs 1.28 lakh.
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He asked the complainant to download an app, got complete access to his phone and stole Rs 4.8 lakh from his accounts, said the official. On the basis of the man’s complaint, the Chitalsar police on Tuesday registered a case under the IT Act. A probe is on, said the official, adding that no arrest has been made yet.
(With inputs from PTI)
