12 S Kol docs fall in Antarctica fraud trap, lose over 1.5 crore
Times of India | 4 February 2024
Kolkata: A dozen doctors from south Kolkata, who had invested more than Rs 1.5 crore for a trip to Antarctica last year, were duped by the travelling agency they had banked upon. The incident came to the fore after the victims were asked to produce their confirmed tickets to arrange for their visas last month.
“On closer scrutiny, it was found that the ship and airline tickets supplied by the agency were fake,” said a lawyer representing the victims.
An FIR in this regard was eventually lodged at Tollygunge police station. One Sreyoshi Biswas, one of the main accused who ran the fake travel agency, has been arrested in this regard and sent to police custody till Feb 9. The minimum loss for each family member has been around Rs 5 lakh.
Cops stated that the accused had lodged a separate FIR stating that an employee of the firm had duped the company and fled with crores.
“However, a further investigation has revealed that proceeds of the ill-fetched money had also reached her. It was also established that the victims were co-opted into the scheme by using fake photographs of tourists being taken there. We suspect that the accused used AI to generate some of the photographs,” said an officer.
According to police, advertisements were issued in the name of travel to different places in the country as well as abroad by the fake agency. “But the most interesting was the advertisement for the trip to Antarctica. Several people contacted the office number of the company and enquired about this unique experience. Immediately, they were lured with videos and pictures of snow and scientific installations in Antarctica,” said an officer.
“When someone goes to Antarctica, he has to undergo various medical tests. But would-be travellers were told that their age would be no issue. They were assured that there would be no difficulty in obtaining a medical report. The gang started taking money in advance and issued some travel documents in return. But before the journey to Antarctica, as travellers tried using them, everything turned out to be fake,” said another investigating officer.
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