Mumbai: The nodal cyber police have registered an FIR against unidentified fraudsters for creating fake websites and email addresses resembling those of Mahindra Holidays & Resorts India Ltd (MHRIL) and offering membership upgrades and annual subscription fee discounts.The MHRIL operates hospitality services across India through its official website, clubmahindra.com, offering membership packages ranging from Rs 1.60 lakh to Rs 15 lakh. Members are required to pay an annual renewal subscription of Rs 18,000 to Rs 22,000.The fraud came to light on June 23, after a Club Mahindra member, Rajtesh Ganguly, informed the company that he had paid Rs 1.26 lakh on May 16 for membership upgrade but had received no confirmation. An internal verification showed that the company had neither received the payment nor any request for the upgrade. Police said several others had also been duped.The company’s IT team subsequently detected and blocked a fraudulent domain, mahindraholidaysandresorts.com. However, investigators found that another deceptive domain, mahindraholidaysandresort.com, was registered the very next day.The complaint states that fraudsters used the fake email address and posed as company representatives, including a person identifying himself as ‘Suniel’ using mobile and another claiming to be relationship manager ‘Manish Pandey’. They allegedly contacted existing Club Mahindra members with false offers of discounted annual subscription fees and membership upgrades.Several customers, including Shashi Sharma, Mohit Saxena, Asit Rana, Ajay Agarwal, Nimal Goyal and Pradeep Bohra, reportedly transferred money after being deceived. Police said the money was routed through third-party payment gateways. The company clarified that these gateways are not authorised to collect membership fees or annual subscription fees on its behalf.The complaint further alleges that the accused created fake electronic records and impersonated company officials as part of a criminal conspiracy to cheat customers.
