Dupes people of money by offering gift vouchers and discount coupons
Dupes people of money by offering gift vouchers and discount coupons
A fake travel company from Delhi has driven victims from many cities to despair. Mumbai-based Vivek Mittal recently blocked his credit card after he realised his wife was duped by 'EBL- Club Leisure Delhi' a telecalling travel agency. Vivek is not alone; an IT professional from Noida, an entrepreneur from Pune and a banker from Kolkata have been cheated by the company by offering gift vouchers and discounted travel coupons.
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| Trip and fall: A webshot of the original TravelPort site. Pic/Mid Day |
"On July 19, I received a call from a person who claimed to be a representative of TravelPort, Delhi, a reputed organisation. They offered me a travel discount voucher of Rs 25000 against the lifetime membership fee of Rs 5509. They said there is also a complimentary gift free of cost (a Reebok watch) would be sent to me with the voucher. I wasn't interested but they kept calling me again and again and made it a point to sell me that scheme. I agreed and paid Rs 5509 through my ICICI credit card. The representative said I would receive the vouchers within seven days from the date of purchase. I am still waiting," said Naresh Kumar, who works in an IT company in Noida.
"After waiting for 30 days I tried calling them on the numbers from which I had received their calls from but none of them seem to exist anymore. They also gave me a helpline number 011-45738585 and a reference no. (005370). But whenever I tried to contact them I land up listening to a never-ending automated voice," Naresh said.
Interestingly, on the very same day Pune-based Neeru Kalra was duped by the same company with the same modus operandi. "The representative called me up repeatedly from various numbers and finally I decided to take the offer as they promised to give a good deal, which never happened. They have good set up as they speak in fluent English and conduct all the transactions over the phone and sound professional too. The numbers were 9582841041, 9582834034, 9582860060, and 9582864064.
Additionally, they gave me a toll free number which is now not in use. The amount has been already debited from my card on July 20 in favour of EBL- Club Leisure, Delhi," said Neeru.s
The tellecallers claim to be part of the TravelPort group, which is a Mumbai-based company and has no office in Delhi. When this reporter contacted TravelPort, the company confirmed that someone was duping people using their name.
Manish Birla of TravelPort said: "We do have a service by the name of Club Leisure but that deals with corporates and we don't do telecalling. The numbers from which the calls have been made are not ours. Someone is misusing our name and we will investigate the matter."
| Spot the fake |
| MiD DAY posed as an interested customer and called on the landline number 011-45738585. The call was answered by an automated voice which was transferred to a female executive who claimed to be an employee of TravelPort and offered the same deal but did not disclose the address of their office and didn't agree to send an executive to collect the membership money. |
