Hyderabad: NRI men, divorced, widowed women are easily falling prey to matrimony frauds in the recent past said the Cyber Crime Police.
So far 16 of such frauds have been reported this year in the city the Cyber Crime police noticed.
In one of the recent cases, a 44-year-old divorced woman Haritha ( name changed) was cheated by a Nigerian on an online matrimonial portal after she had joined the online portal last year, after being separated from her husband, TOI reports.
The fraudster she met online claimed to be a widower Doctor from the UK who lost his wife to a car accident and is currently staying with his daughter.
Soon after winning the victim’s trust, the fraudster told her that he had applied for Indian visa and booked tickets for India to meet her.
“He told Haritha that he only knows her in India and wanted to meet her and her family to talk about marriage,” said S Harinath, assistant commissioner of police (cyber crime), Rachakonda.
Later the victim received a call from a woman, claiming to be a customs officer.
The woman also a fraud told the victim that the man has been taken into custody for carrying a lot of cash and gifts.
“The customs officer asked Haritha to send money to various accounts to secure his release. Haritha sent over Rs 5 lakh, only to find out that she has been cheated. After sending the money, Haritha never received any call from the customs officers or the fraudster,” added the ACP.
“These fraudsters have been targeting women, who
are in the age group of 35 to 50 years, and are widowed, divorced or looking
for a partner on online matrimonial portals,” the ACP explained.
Not only women but NRI grooms too are falling in the trap of these community matrimony portals.
In another case, a US-based man from Hyderabad was cheated of Rs 4 lakhs by a woman he wanted to marry after he met her on one of the online matrimony portals. He met a woman and after weeks of chatting, they decided on the dates of engagement and marriage in April.
“The woman told the victim that she got a job opportunity at CISCO at West Palm Beach, which is an hour journey from the victim’s place and asked him to send USD 2,900 for initial cost,” said a police officer adding that when the money was sent the woman stopped calling him.