Fake Temple Booking Sites: How to Find the Official Website Before You Pay for Darshan, Puja or Rooms

To tell whether a temple booking site is genuine:

1. Find the address on the temple trust's own official website, or in a notice the trust has published.
2. Type that address yourself. Do not click a search advert or a link someone forwarded to you.
3. Pay only inside that site, or inside the trust's own app.

Be wary of anyone who asks you to pay through WhatsApp, a UPI QR code or a personal phone number, or who offers "VIP" darshan for a fee at a temple where darshan is free. Trusts and police have repeatedly found fake sites copying Tirumala (TTD), Puri, Kashi Vishwanath and Somnath, some of them complete with copied logos and photographs. If you have already paid a site you now doubt, call the national cyber-fraud helpline 1930 straight away, or report it at cybercrime.gov.in.

A note on our own interest: ProperPandit is building puja-booking features, which today are only a preview, not a working service. This article is not an advertisement for them. For darshan, sevas or rooms at a temple, the safe channel is the temple's own.

What the fake sites look like: documented cases

These come from police action and temple-trust complaints reported in the news. We have not named the fake web addresses here. Many are taken down and replaced by new ones, so a list of names would date quickly and could mislead.

Temple	What happened	Reported
Tirumala (TTD)	Tirupati district police, working with TTD's vigilance wing, said they had found and removed 32 fake websites. These were set up in the names of guest houses and other accommodation in Tirumala. Another fake site falsely offered darshan and seva tickets.	Deccan Chronicle, 30 Jul 2026
Tirumala (TTD)	TTD's Additional Executive Officer urged devotees to use only official channels, and never to send money to middlemen or unauthorised people.	All India Radio, 15 Jul 2026
Jagannath temple, Puri	The temple administration (SJTA) complained to the Puri cyber police about a website selling "darshan" for ₹50–₹500. The Chief Administrator said the administration does not charge for darshan: "It is completely free."	PTI in The Week, 1 Sep 2025
Kashi Vishwanath, Varanasi	Fake sites offered bookings for Sugam Darshan, Rudrabhishek and aarti, especially in Sawan, when demand peaks. The trust's CEO filed police complaints.	Free Press Journal, 2025
Somnath	Gujarat police arrested six people over four fake sites copying the Somnath Trust's room-booking portal. Logos and guest-house photos were copied, and some images were altered with AI tools. The group paid for online promotion so the fakes appeared high in search results. Victims paid by QR code, UPI or bank transfer and received fake receipts.	IANS, 24 Feb 2026

The Somnath Trust also carries a notice on its own home page, in Hindi. It says online room bookings, puja registration and donations are accepted only through its official website. It says the trust never asks anyone to book or donate through any other channel, a private number or UPI. It also warns that people have been cheated through chats, WhatsApp and phone calls posing as bookings.

Six checks before you pay

1. Start from the trust, not from a search result. The Somnath case shows that a fake site can buy its way to the top of search results. Find the trust's site from a source you already trust, such as the temple's printed material, a state government page or a notice published by the trust. Then type that address yourself.
2. Read the address bar letter by letter. Fake sites often add or swap a word in the name, or use a different ending such as .online or .in. Compare the address with the official one, character by character.
3. Know what a .gov.in address tells you, and what it doesn't. Registration under .gov.in is limited to government bodies, so a temple run by a government body may have one: TTD's booking portal, Mahakaleshwar and the Char Dham registration portal all do. But many genuine temple trusts use .org or .in addresses, Somnath and Puri among them. A site without .gov.in is not necessarily fake. A look-alike address is the warning sign.
4. Pay only on the site itself. Be suspicious if you are asked to pay by QR code, UPI to a personal number, or bank transfer to an individual, or to "confirm on WhatsApp". The Somnath Trust says outright that it does not take bookings this way.
5. Check whether the thing you are buying should cost money at all. At Puri, the administration says darshan is free. "VIP darshan" for a fee, sold by a third party, is the pattern police have acted on there. Where a trust does sell tickets, such as TTD's special entry darshan or Kashi Vishwanath's Sugam Darshan, buy them only through the trust's own site or counters.
6. Look for the trust's own instructions. Official portals usually explain who can book, what ID is needed and how cancellations work. A site that only takes your money, with no rules or contact details for the trust, is a warning sign.

Official websites for some major temples and yatras

Every address below was checked on 18 Oct 2026. Each one either describes itself as the trust's official site, is linked from the trust's own site, or is a government portal. Addresses can change, so recheck on the trust's site before you pay.

Temple or yatra	Official site	Notes
Tirumala (Sri Venkateswara)	tirumala.org for information; ttdevasthanams.ap.gov.in for bookings	The booking portal calls itself TTD's "Official Booking Portal" and is linked from tirumala.org
Jagannath temple, Puri	shreejagannatha.in	The site states it is the official website of the Shree Jagannatha Temple Administration. Darshan is free, according to the Chief Administrator
Kashi Vishwanath, Varanasi	shrikashivishwanath.org	"Shri Kashi Vishwanath Official Web Portal". The trust's FAQ tells devotees to book through the official website or app
Somnath	somnath.org	The anti-fraud notice is on the home page
Vaishno Devi	maavaishnodevi.org	Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board. It says pilgrims must register and collect an RFID Yatra Access Card
Char Dham and Hemkund Sahib registration	registrationandtouristcare.uk.gov.in	Uttarakhand government registration portal
Badrinath and Kedarnath pujas	badrinath-kedarnath.gov.in	Shri Badrinath-Kedarnath Temple Committee. It says prior registration is mandatory for puja, path, aarti and bhog bookings
Mahakaleshwar, Ujjain	shrimahakaleshwar.mp.gov.in	A Madhya Pradesh government domain

This list is not complete, and leaving a temple out does not mean anything about it. For any other temple, look on the trust's own site for the booking link, or ask its office.

If you have already paid a site you now doubt

• Call 1930 at once. This is the National Cyber Crime Reporting Helpline. Kerala Police describe it as available 24 hours a day and stress reporting quickly. The faster a fraudulent payment is reported, the better the chance of stopping the money.
• File a complaint at cybercrime.gov.in, the national portal for reporting online crime, including financial fraud.
• Tell your bank or UPI app and ask them to flag the transaction.
• Keep everything: screenshots of the site and its address, payment receipts, the UTR or transaction ID, phone numbers and chat messages.
• Tell the temple trust. Trusts such as TTD, SJTA and the Kashi Vishwanath trust have gone to the police about fake sites. Their contact details are on their official websites.