Man creates fake profile on matrimonial website, dupes 35-yr-old woman of Rs 6,700

A 35-year-old woman was allegedly duped of Rs 6,700 on the pretext of marriage by a man who contacted her through a matrimonial website. The accused had created a fake profile and claimed to be a 37-year-old IT professional working in the US. Leena Dhankhar reports.

A 35-year-old woman was allegedly duped of Rs 6,700 on the pretext of marriage by a man who contacted her through a matrimonial website. The accused had created a fake profile and claimed to be a 37-year-old IT professional working in the US.

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Victim Mansi Sharma (name changed on request) told HT, "I posted my profile on the matrimonial portal in May. I was contacted by a person who introduced himself as Sahil Singh from Sacramento in the US. He claimed his family was based in Bangalore and he was planning to visit India on June 10 to get a few properties registered."

The conman also deleted his account on the site and told Sharma that he did not want to contact anyone else.

After being in touch with Sharma for over a month and gaining her trust, the man allegedly asked her for financial help.

"We used to talk over the phone frequently. The US number posted on the site was always on voice mail and Singh told me that was because he keeps travelling. He used to call back from free call applications like Viber and Skype," the victim said.

After around 15 days of interaction, the accused did not call Sharma for nearly a week. He contacted her again saying that his mobile phone had fallen into water and stopped working. He sounded dejected and claimed that he had suffered losses in the share market.

"He allegedly had to pay R6,700 to a share broker in India and she was harassing him. He requested me to speak to a woman named Archana," Sharma added.

"I met the woman at a Gurgaon Metro station and gave her the money."Two days after Sharma paid the amount, the man was in touch with her but since then, he has been untraceable.Sharma has filed a complaint with the Sushant Lok police. JCP Maheshwar Dayal said, "The cyber crime team are conducting an investigation and the culprit will be nabbed soon."