New Delhi: Using fake websites, AI-generated images, photos lifted from Google, and clever SEO placement, a gang of 10 people created 126 fake websites, and allegedly defrauded almost 22,000 tourists booking accommodations around popular destinations across India.
The Cyber Centre of Excellence, CID Crime, Gujarat, on Tuesday arrested two people in connection with the alleged fraud, and are conducting raids to nab the remaining accused. They said police are ascertaining the amount defrauded by the gang, who have been operating since 2022.
Police said so far, 70 complaints against these websites were filed on the National Cybercrime Reporting Portal (NCCRP), and most of them were from Gujarat, which prompted the state police to launch a probe.
According to the police, the gang relied on a simple trick: create exact copy of legitimate websites for dharamshalas, ashrams, trusts and hotels around major tourist destinations, pose as official representatives of these trusted stays, and dupe tourists in the name of advance bookings.
To pull this off smoothly, the gang maintained a detailed Google Sheet tracking the 126 fraudulent websites. They pulled real photographs and details from Google and Google Maps, embedding them directly onto their bogus websites.
The modus operandi
A senior police officer from CID Crime told ThePrint that their investigation revealed that the gang received booking requests through these websites, got advance money and provided no service.
The investigation also revealed that a total of 21,985 people—about 7,000 of them from Gujarat—were allegedly cheated through these 126 websites, a senior police officer said.
Police said the accused also had access to six administrative panels that were used to manage the fake websites, and activities such as changing phone numbers and editing content.
યાત્રાધામોના નામે ભ્રામક વેબસાઈટો મારફતે 21,985 નાગરિકો સાથે આચરવામાં આવેલી છેતરપિંડીનો પર્દાફાશ.
સાયબર સેન્ટર ઓફ એક્સેલન્સ, ગાંધીનગર દ્વારા સાયબર ફ્રોડ આચરનારા બે આરોપીઓની દિલ્હી અને રાજસ્થાનમાંથી ધરપકડ કરવામાં આવી છે.
આરોપીઓએ સોમનાથ, દ્વારકા, તિરુપતિ, ઋષિકેશ-હરિદ્વાર સહિત… pic.twitter.com/f4cvZh8Quu
— Cyber Centre of Excellence (@CyberGujarat) August 14, 2026
Acting on these complaints, the Gujarat Police arrested two people: Vicky Kumar Gupta (34), a resident of West Sagarpur in Delhi; and Shailesh Saini (24), a resident of Bharatpur in Rajasthan.
While Gupta is a computer science graduate and works in digital marketing and web development, Saini is a graduate in business studies, and is preparing for competitive exams, police said.
An officer said Gupta has knowledge of website development and hosting. “According to the co-accused, he created approximately 126 misleading websites showing the names of dharamshalas, ashrams, trusts, and hotels. To gain citizens’ trust, he got photographs of the real accommodations from Google and Google Maps and added them to the website design.”
“Believing the website to be genuine, people filled in details including their name, mobile number, and booking date in an online form for room booking. These details were received directly on the Gmail of the web developer, accused Gupta,” said another police source.
The source further said that Gupta used to send the details of this booking request via WhatsApp to main accused Saini on his different mobile numbers.
Saini would then contact the customers, identify himself as the reception manager of the hotel, “and collect money from the citizens/customers in the name of advance room booking”, said the officer.
Gupta kept the backend technical access to the websites he created and made changes to the mobile number, content, etc. on the website.
During the investigation, a Google Sheet containing details of 126 websites and related WhatsApp chats and booking requests were recovered from Gupta’s laptop, police said.
Police records show that the accused allegedly created 41 websites for Gujarat (for Somnath, Dwarka, Girnar, Palitana, Bhuj, Junagadh, Patan and Gandhinagar), 27 for Uttarakhand, and 18 for Andhra Pradesh (in Tirumala, Visakhapatnam, Tirupati).
There were five websites each for Jammu and Kashmir, Karnataka. Seven for Madhya Pradesh, eight for Maharashtra, six each for Odisha and Tamil Nadu, two for Uttar Pradesh and one for West Bengal.
Sources said that the fake websites were created using domains like .com, .co.in, .co, .org, .in, etc.
“The accused (Gupta) was getting financial benefits in exchange for technical services like website development, mobile number update, SEO and Google Advertisement. It has also been prima facie revealed in the investigation that he was getting 35 percent share in the bookings made from some websites,” said the source.
(Edited by Ajeet Tiwari)
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