You want to spend your holiday in Puri. So you search online for hotels and find a website that looks promising. It provides a WhatsApp mobile number and email ID, and you get in touch with what you think is the hotel. They respond, and ask you to transfer 50 percent of the booking amount in advance, which you do. When you land up in Puri, however, you find that not only does no booking exist in your name, but the hotel has not received any money as advance either. In fact, the hotel personnel don’t even know you exist!
You later find out that the website was fake and the email ID and phone number were being operated by fraudsters posing as hotel personnel to dupe innocent people.
Between September and November of this year, Cyber Police Station Lalbazar has received more than one complaint dealing specifically with such fake hotel bookings for Puri, a popular holiday destination for Kolkatans.
While our investigations are in progress, we do ask all of you to observe a few basic precautions when transacting online:

1. Check the domain name closely, make sure it matches the service provider’s name in every way
2. Look for a padlock symbol next to the website URL
3. Use a website checker or safe browsing tools
4. Look for poor spelling, design issues, and other red flags
5. Check the domain age using online tools
6. Be wary of deals that seem too good to be true
7. In case of hotel bookings, look for user reviews, and check for reports of scams
8. Read information such as shipping and return policy carefully
9. Scrutinise your payment options
10. Don’t be fooled by ‘trust signals’ such as claims of awards etc. Check if they are authentic
11. Run a virus scan

Source : Kolkata Police