A 35-year-old was allegedly cheated of Rs 85,000 in a series of transactions while booking a table at a restaurant on a number listed online, said police. According to a report in the Indian Express, the number did not belong to the restaurant and was said to have been added by scammers.

The woman, identified as Manjeet Madan, was making dinner reservations for her family in a restaurant in Juhu Tara Road for which she dialed the contact number listed on Google. When her call was not attended twice, she later received a call from the same number. The person posing as staff from the restaurant, who identified himself to Madan as Deepak Mishra,  asked her to pay Rs 25 to skip the queue as he told her of a 45-50 waiting period to get a table. Mishra told her to make the payment through Google Pay as they would receive a message on their contact number that would be forwarded to another number who would reply with a link for the payment to be made.