Shocking! Noida woman searches for hotel on Google, falls for WhatsApp scam, loses Rs. 1 lakh

A Noida woman fell for a WhatsApp scam and lost almost Rs. 1 lakh after she searched for Kedarnath hotels on Google Search. Check how this dangerous online scam took place.

A Noida woman ends up losing nearly Rs. 1 lakh in a WhatsApp scam after she searches for hotels in Kedarnath on Google Search. (Pixabay)

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.

Woman falls for WhatsApp scam after looking for Kedarnath hotels on Google

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 then sent her a QR code on WhatsApp for a payment of Rs. 2,000, but when she made the payment, she found out that Rs. 4,000 were taken from her account. After highlighting the same, the fraudster told the victim that it happened by mistake and sent her another QR code for refund. But once again, she ended up losing more money.

“The caller then said that he had mistakenly entered a wrong code because of which the trouble started. He once again sent a QR code to return the money, but this time the woman lost ₹9,901 from her account. Ultimately the woman ended up losing ₹95,604 from her account,” the officer stated.

This is when the woman realized that she was scammed and she called the number of the perpetrator but found out it was unreachable and was soon switched off.