NEW DELHI, APRIL 19, 2025: The Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C), under the Ministry of Home Affairs, has alerted the public about online booking frauds, especially those targeting religious pilgrims and tourists across the country. These frauds are being perpetrated through fake websites, deceptive social media pages, Facebook posts, and paid advertisements on search engines like Google.
These scams involve the creation of professional-looking but fake websites and social media profiles, and WhatsApp accounts offering services such as:
- Helicopter booking for Kedarnath, Chardham
- Guest house and hotel booking for pilgrims
- Online cab/taxi service bookings
- Holiday packages and religious tours
Unsuspecting individuals, upon making payments through these portals, often realize they have been duped when no confirmation or service is received, and the contact numbers go unreachable.
People are advised to exercise extreme caution:
- Always verify the authenticity of websites before making any payments.
- Verify before clicking on “sponsored” or unknown links on Google, Facebook, or WhatsApp.
- Cross-check bookings only through official government portals or trusted travel agencies.
- Report such websites immediately at the National Cybercrime Reporting Portal: cybercrime.gov.inor call 1930 in case of any fraud.
- Kedarnath Helicopter booking can be done via https://www.heliyatra.irctc.co.in
- Somnath Trust’s official website is https://somnath.organd guest house booking can be done via the same.
To contain the scams, the Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre is taking a multi-pronged strategy.
- Scam Signal Exchange – Scam Signals are being regularly exchanged with IT intermediaries,s viz. Google, WhatsApp,and Facebook for proactive detection.
- Enforcement – Cybercrime Hotspots are being identified and State / UTs originated are being sensitised.
- Cyber Patrolling – Fake websites/advertisements and impersonating social media accounts access are being disabled on to protect citizens.
- Suspect checking and Reporting feature on the National Cybercrime Reporting Portal is developed to facilitate hassle-free reporting.
