Noida: Offering cheap 'holiday packages' to Goa, Himachal lands 4 frauds in jail

Four men running a bogus call centre here have been arrested for allegedly duping people by offering them holiday packages including to Himachal Pradesh an Goa at heavily "discounted" rates, the police said Tuesday.

A joint team of the Cyber Cell and the local police arrested the accused on Monday from their office in Sector 16 of the city, they said.

"The accused people were running a fake call centre from where they would call up gullible people all across the country and offer them holiday packages at discounted rates," Circle officer, Noida 1st, Awneesh Kumar told reporters.

He said they had also created two websites "http://www.yatragatevway.com" and "http://www.a1yatra.com"

to look more credible.

 

They would tell their targets to choose from any location in the country including popular destinations such as Goa, Himachal Pradesh, Kerala and offer them holiday packages for amounts as low as Rs 12,000, the police said.

"The accused would tell their targets that other leading brands offer same packages for Rs 36,000 but they were giving it for one third of the price at Rs 12,000," the police said.

They duped several couples and individuals of lakhs of rupees and would even offer them freebies with the package, a Cyber Cell official told PTI.

"If they thought the target were not falling trap to their 'discounted' offers, they told them that availing the package could win them free gadgets like laptops and smartphones," the official said.

According to the police, there were working on several complaints about the fake 'holiday packages' which led them to this gang, which was active since 2017.

Those arrested have been identified as Sumit Jha (22), Gaurav Singh (23), Umesh Kumar (24), and Shivam (22).

While Sumit is a Class 12 pass with an O-level Diploma in Computers, Gaurav is a B.Sc graduate and Umesh and Shivam are B.Com graduates, the police said.

Eleven computer systems, eight mobile phones, multiple debit/credit cards and other electronic gadgets were seized from their possession during the raid, the police said.

A case has been registered against them at Sector 20 police station under the Indian Penal Code section 420 for cheating and under relevant sections of the Information Technology Act, the police said, adding they have been remanded in judicial custody.