Click to play videoMumbai: Reports of online fraud and data theft in BPOs have been making the headlines for a long time now. However, this time around, it is the airline industry that is facing the music.
In the most sensational case of online ticket booking fraud, Kingfisher Airlines has allegedly been duped of Rs 17 crore.
Although the airlines has filed a complaint with the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Mumbai crime branch, a formal FIR is yet to be registered.
Police sources say credit card details procured from restaurants, petrol pumps and shopping mall employees were used to book tickets online.
The police suspect an organised syndicate is responsible for the fraud that may in fact be a nationwide one.
The tickets were booked from across the country including Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata.
The Mumbai Police has asked officials of Kingfisher Airlines to submit the exact details of the credit cards that were used to book airline tickets.
Sources say middlemen would buy tickets online using details of credit cards such as the card number and CVV number given behind the card. The tickets were then sold for a discount.
Usually a bank always files the police complaint when a credit card is misused. This is the first time that an airline has done the same after the bank charged the amount to Kingfisher.
Even as Kingfisher comes to terms with what is one of the most brazen case of cloning credit cards yet, sources say many more airlines might have been duped in a similar fashion.
(With Vishal Monga)
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