Mumbai police arrested two men for creating a fake portal of the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA) and accepting money from unsuspecting people applying for flats under the ongoing housing lottery scheme. According to TOI, of the two accused, Kalpesh Sevak created the fake portal while his accomplice, Amol Patel, posed as a MHADA officer, police said.
The official site of MHADA is ‘mhada.gov.in’ whereas the fake one is ‘mhada.org.’ “The fraudsters took one unsuspecting applicant to a MHADA apartment in Goregaon and told him that its price was Rs 30 lakh. They made him pay the amount online on the fake site. At least four people have fallen victim to the fraud,” said a MHADA official. The structure of the home page, address, and front page of the fake website is similar to the official MHADA website. However, the fake site provides an option of direct payment without the application process.
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A cyber police officer said they had received a complaint from MHADA about the fake website created by scammers to dupe people applying for the housing lottery scheme. The housing board recently announced the release of 2,030 flats in various projects in Mumbai.