Cops publish list containing verified details of hotels and homestays in Darjeeling dist
DARJEELING: The Darjeeling police have published a list containing information on hotels and homestays of the district with verified details. This comes on the heels of many tourists falling prey to cyber fraud by paying booking advances to bank accounts linked to spurious websites and pages impersonating renowned hotels of Darjeeling.
In a message, aimed at tourists, Praween Prakash, Superintendent of Police, Darjeeling, cautioned everyone to verify all information available on the internet. “There is a tourist onrush to Darjeeling and many tourists are falling prey to cyber fraud while trying to book hotels. We would like to caution them and ask them to double check and verify all information before making online payments in the way of advance bookings to hotels. Accounts and phone numbers of hotels are usually in the name of the hotel and not in the name of individuals,” stated Prakash.
Many such cases have come to the notice of the Darjeeling police. Talking about the modus operandi of the fraudsters, Prakash stated: “Spurious pages have been opened up in the name of renowned hotels of Darjeeling. When a tourist searches for hotels in the internet using a search engine, these pages pop up. Blindly believing the information displayed, they usually call up the number provided on the page without cross-checking. The person on the other end then asks for an advance booking amount. Unsuspectingly the tourist indulges in online transfer. They later come to know that the site is spurious and they have been duped,” added Prakash.
In order to halt such crimes, the Darjeeling police have come up with a list of hotels and homestays of the district. “The list is available on the official website of the Darjeeling police,www. darjeeling police. org .The information can be downloaded from ‘Verified Hotels and Homestays of Darjeeling District as on 15-052023,’” stated the SP. A QR Code has also been uploaded which directs the user to the official page of the Darjeeling Police from where the list can be downloaded.” The verified list contains the name of hotel; police station; email; official website; address and contact number. There are 1293 hotels, homestays and lodges in the list.The SP has also asked the hotel and home stay owners to immediately bring to the notice of the police if they find any spurious site running in the name of their properties. “We will take all necessary action” he assured.
“This is a major problem that we are facing. Regularly these spurious sites keep popping up on the net. As soon as we complain and get them closed, the next day again a new spurious site pops up. There have been more than 40 such cases with my hotel alone. The tourists have to be very cautious. Before depositing money they will have to verify and cross check all details,” stated Samir Singhal, Secretary, Darjeeling Hotel Owners Association. There are around 300 hotels registered with this association. The police along with the cyber crime wing have held meetings with hotels and homestay owners in the past to find a solution. “Though there hasn’t been any incident of tourists getting scammed trying to book home stays but we have come across fraud sites displaying false pictures and information including phone numbers in impersonating existing home stays. Tourists need to be very careful,” stated Ramila Syangden, president, Darjeeling Homestay Owners’ Association. There are 45 homestays registered with this association.