A well-known Indian restaurant in Sydney finds itself in a pickle as they expect more than 200 people at its doors on Tuesday night after they paid a scammer up to $550 each for a "non-existent dinner" with the Indian cricket team currently in Australia.
As reports from Daily Telegraph Australia, the fraud left flyers on cars parked at Sydney Cricket Ground during the third ODI between the two teams and which will host the third Test starting 7th January, and promoted a "meet & greet with the Indian cricket team" at Manjits Wharf, situated at Lime Street on Tuesday, January 5 from 6-10.30 p.m. (local time).
However, the restaurant's owners told the publication that the promoter did not pay a full $5,000 deposit and missed meetings arranged to discuss the menu, decorations, and timings for the said event.
The restaurant provides all the meals to the Indian players when they are in Sydney, found out that the Indian team won’t be there on the said date and time, and realized that they had been duped by the scammer.
The scam was reported to the police, as well as the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission's ScamWatch service, said Manjits General Manager Deep Gujral.
"I don't know what further to do. I'm expecting 200 people at the front door if not more -- who knows how many people he stopped at," Gujral said.
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He further said that the Indian players had been warned not to go to the eatery on Tuesday evening.
Cricket Australia's security was alerted to the flyer after concerns such an event could breach bio-security protocols but instantly became suspicious the advertisement was a hoax.
Manjits have apologized to any and all customers who might feel slighted by the incident, via their Facebook page.
"Unfortunately, we may have been part of a scam with a booking to meet the Indian Cricket Team at Manjit's via an external booking organizer. We truly feel with anyone that has also been scammed with ticket purchases," the statement read.
Indian players already found themselves in hot soup, after Rohit Sharma, Rishabh Pant, Shubman Gill, Prithvi Shaw, and Navdeep Saini were forced into isolation after a video of them eating inside a restaurant in Melbourne went viral, especially after the Indian origin fan mentioned that Rishabh Pant hugged him after he had paid their bill.
The fan later retracted his statement, but it was enough for the Australian and Indian cricket boards to launch an investigation into the matter. However, all five players, along with the entire Indian contingent returned negative COVID-19 tests before flying to Sydney for the third Test.
(IANS inputs)
