Noida: Two Ghaziabad men arrested for duping people who wanted to book OYO hotel rooms

Noida Police are investigating the manner in which the bookings were made, and how the accused acquired the data to determine who was in need of a room at OYO Hotels. A total of Rs 79,000 in cash, along with 23 SIM cards, 20 ATM cards, five Aadhaar cards, one PAN card and four mobile phones have been recovered, police said.

During their investigation, the police found that all the four were actively involved in the fraudulent activities such as preparing fake Aadhaar cards and then luring less-educated people (including labourers) to use their Aadhaar cards to buy SIM cards. “The fraudsters would then influence the people to open bank accounts in Fino Bank using the SIM card, and would persuade them to give up their Aadhaar cards for Rs 500. They would then take them to Fino Bank and enable them to open bank accounts with an online banking facility (the details of which the accused could access) and would then retain the SIM card and ATM cards with them,” Noida Sector 63 Station House Officer Sarvesh Chandra said.

The gang had mostly duped travellers from southern states and their latest victim is a person from Kolkata, police said. “When someone would try to make a booking, the accused would somehow access the data of the victim and posing as a staff of OYO Hotel, a travel aggregator, the fraudster would ask them to transfer the booking amount for the rooms to the bank account and would in turn withdraw that money through UPI and ATM,” Chandra said.

An FIR was registered on July 10 based on the complaint of an owner of a SIM Card shop in Chaajarsi who grew suspicious when the accused frequently purchased SIM cards from him, Chandra said. The FIR has been registered under Sections 420 (Cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), 467 (Forgery of valuable security, will, etc.), 468 (Forgery for purpose of cheating) and 471 (Using as genuine a forged document or electronic record) of the Indian Penal Code against the accused at Noida Sector 63 station and further investigation, including the search for the two absconding members, is under way, police said.