Kolkata Police have found that last summer at least 83 Calcuttans had been cheated out of more than ₹13.6 lakh through fake websites for hotel booking.

The police have arrested one man from Maharashtra on Monday who had allegedly cheated at least one of the 83 complainants who have reported the crime through the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal.

“We have come across 83 complaints where people have been cheated of more than ₹13.6 lakh by designing fake websites for hotel booking. One of the accused has been arrested,” said joint commissioner (crime), Kolkata Police, Rupesh Kumar.

Out of the 83 who had reported the cheating of hotel bookings through fake websites, Debajyoti Mullick, a resident of Haridevpur, had reported a cheating of ₹4,480 to the police.

During the probe, the police are said to have found that Mullick had tried to book a hotel room at a hotel in Puri in May last year and paid through a website.

“Initially, he was asked to pay ₹1 to verify the booking, which was credited to a bank account purportedly belonging to the hotel, held in the name of Anuj Kumar Solanki, who claimed to be the front desk manager,” said an officer of the cyber cell of Kolkata Police.

“Thereafter, citing repeated UPI transaction failures, the accused persons directed the complainant to make further payments through a QR code with the UPI ID in the name of Ashis Jena, who claimed to be the senior manager of the hotel,” he said.

“During the entire transaction process, the accused persons remained in continuous telephonic contact with the complainant and shared photographs of hotel rooms to gain his confidence,” he added.

Mullick paid ₹4,480 in multiple transactions, but no receipt was generated.

Later, the Haridevpur resident realised that no booking had been made in his name.

The police tracked down the proprietor of a company in whose name the fake website was registered and zeroed in on him in Maharashtra.

The suspect was identified as Huzaifa Shabbir Darbar, 41, who was arrested from Pune early on Tuesday morning. He will be brought to Calcutta on transit remand.

The police said several electronic devices have been seized from his house, which would be scanned to check if he had been involved in creating more fake websites to cheat people.

Several such cases have been reported, with people planning their vacation and getting duped by clicking on fraudulent websites for hotel booking.

A family in north Calcutta also had a similar experience.

A. Mitra, a resident of Jagannath Dutta Lane, made an advance payment of around ₹50,000 to book seven rooms of a hotel in Puri online. But on arrival, he was told that there were no such booking.

Recently, Iskcon lodged an FIR against fraudsters for allegedly collecting payments from devotees by promising accommodation at the organisation’s headquarters in Mayapur, Nadia through fake websites.