A 43-year-old businessman from Bengaluru ended up losing ₹11 lakh to a fake Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) franchise website after he did a Google search to buy the franchise. An FIR was registered at East CEN police station.
The businessman, who hails from Kaggdaspura in C.V. Raman Nagar, did a search on Google to find out the contact details of KFC to purchase a franchise and set up an outlet in the city. According to the police, the KFC website he found sought his contact details. He updated his contact number on the site, which turned out to be fake. The website has been identified as kfcindia.in.
Days after he entered his contact details, he received calls from two unknown numbers enquiring about his request to buy the franchise. The strangers introduced themselves as employees of KFC who deal with franchises. They said they would send a formal mail to his email address. After the conversation, he received an email from info@kfcindia.in. The police said the email made it look like it is formal procedure to apply for franchise and the mail also mentioned the price for the purchase. After he received the mail, the businessman continued his correspondence with the alleged executives over email from July 27.
For about a month, both parties held email conversations during which the executives asked for money to process his requests. Over multiple transactions, the businessman transferred ₹11.8 lakh to them. After August 23, when the businessman did not see any progress, he realised he was defrauded. The contact numbers were switched off. He filed a complaint on August 30.
KFC notice
The KFC, on its official website, has issued a caution notice to beware of such frauds and fake KFC franchise websites. “Please beware of the fake websites misusing the KFC brand-name to defraud and offer KFC franchises. KFC INC, or Yum Restaurants (India) Pvt. Ltd. or its affiliates do not offer its franchisee to the general public at large in this manner,” it said.
This notice further said some fraudulent and unscrupulous agencies/individuals are fraudulently offering false business/franchise opportunities of KFC, and have further floated fraudulent websites like www.kfcfranchisechayan.in or www.kfcpartner.com or www.yumbrandsfranchise.com (indicative list) and several other unauthorised websites which fraudulently misuse the KFC name, address, logo or trademarks, and unauthorised emails IDs.
