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Fake booking site for Bengaluru’s Kumara Krupa Guest House dupes customers
The scam came to light after a customer who lost Rs 11,000 while trying to book a room at New Kumara Krupa State Guest House approached the police.
The police are also moving to have the fraudulent website disabled. (AI image)
The police have registered a case after several people were cheated out of money by a fake website that offered to book rooms at the state-run New Kumara Krupa State Guest House in Bengaluru.
According to a complaint filed by Karthik Santhosh, senior manager at the guest house, several customers reported receiving booking confirmations and invoices through a fraudulent website, https://kumarkrupaguesthouse.in, which they believed was the official booking portal.
The scam came to light after a customer who lost Rs 11,000 while booking a room through a fake website approached the Central CEN Crime Police. During a preliminary inquiry, investigators tracked down one of the suspects, who they said confessed to the fraud and returned the cheated amount to the victim. The victim declined to file a complaint, making it difficult for the police to pursue the case further.
Citing the recurring nature of the fraud, the police approached the guest house authorities and had them file a complaint, following which the FIR was registered on Sunday on charges of identity theft and cheating by personation using computer resources.
The fraudsters created the website, generated fake booking confirmations and invoices in the guest house’s name, and induced customers to make online payments for room reservations.
Efforts underway to disable website
The police are also moving to have the fraudulent website disabled and are coordinating with the relevant agencies as part of the ongoing investigation, a senior police officer said.
The police have yet to ascertain how many people the fake website duped. “That is part of the investigation. We are trying to identify other victims and establish the full scale of the fraud,” the officer said.
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This is not the first such incident involving the state-run guest house. In September 2025, the High Grounds Police in Bengaluru registered an FIR after fraudsters created another fake website, kumarakrupaaguesthouse.com, to dupe customers by collecting payments for room bookings.
“Website owners should periodically check whether fraudulent websites resembling their official portals have been created. If they remain alert and immediately bring such instances to the notice of the police, we can act quickly to prevent members of the public from being cheated,” the police officer added.
© IE Online Media Services Pvt Ltd
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