Woman poses as Canadian on wedding site, cheats Mumbai man of Rs7.8 lakh
Woman and man who posed as her father get him to send the money for a ‘biz deal’ to boost his marriage prospects
A 40-year-old Andheri resident was allegedly cheated of Rs7.8 lakh by a woman who posed as a Canadian on a matrimonial website. According to the police, the man befriended one Jennifer Brown though the site last March. The woman, police said, allegedly lifted a photo from a Russian woman’s Facebook page for her profile. The two would phone each other and text through Whatsapp, police said.
Several months later, the woman told the man she had fallen in love with him and wanted to marry him, police said. According to the police, the man told her that marriage would be difficult as he was not rich and would not be able to travel to Canada. The woman said she could help by getting him to help her father in his business. She then introduced him to a man who posed as her father, George Brown.
According to the police, he told the victim there was a huge demand for Tatasha Herbal seeds in the US and that they were available in Bangalore. He gave him a number. When the man phoned, a woman picked up. She said she had three packets that cost Rs7.8 lakh. On March 30 , the victim sent the money through RTGS and two days later, received three packets of seeds by courier.
According to the police, when he called Jennifer, he was told that 90 more packets were required. This is when he suspected something was amiss. The man told HT, “After repeated calls, the woman said she and an other man, a Nigerian, were cheating him. I have alerted the woman whose Facebook picture they used. Before paying the money, I had also spoken to the an employee of the site, who said the profile was genuine. The website misled me too.” The accused’s phones were switched off, police said. An FIR was registered this month.
Read: Mumbai: Two held for duping women of Rs 2cr on matrimonial sites