Matrimonial frauds on the rise

Visakhapatnam: Widows and divorced women, who are looking for second marriages and the parents of girls, who are looking at software professionals settled in the US, are the main target of fraudsters. The fraudsters create fake profiles on the matrimonial websites by posing themselves as software professional in the US.  

The matrimonial frauds have been reported in Visakhapatnam, Vijayawada, Tirupati and other towns. But cracking these cases is not an easy task and recovery of money from the fraudsters is also a tough task to police.

Inspector of Cyber Crimes Investigation Cell (CCIC) V Gopinath explained that some widows and divorced women register their profiles on popular matrimonial websites for second marriage.

The fraudsters, who also register in the matrimonial website with fake profiles, identify their targets and after establishing trust, the crooks propose marriage. Later, they cook up a story stating that they were caught by the customs officials at the airport and ask money to overcome from hurdles. However, later, they vanish into thin air. 

According to cyber team and their experiences in dealing with such cases, men have been cheated by fraudsters posing as women.  He also mentioned that in recent times, the city cybercrime team arrested two of three accused, including a Nigerian national.

In one of the recent cases, a woman, who is looking for second marriage, had received interest from one Ansh Khurana, who claimed himself that he was an interior designer living in New York. Later, Ansh Khurana made a phone call to the woman and claimed that he landed at the Delhi Airport but was detained by the customs officials on the charge that he was having huge US currency and valuable gifts.

Believing Ansh Khurana’s words that he needed money for release from the customs to clear the customs duties, the woman deposited Rs 24,29,000 in different bank accounts provided by the fraudster. In another incident, a woman from Visakhapatnam city, who is looking for second marriage, was duped by a fraudster to the tune of Rs 40 lakh. 

He also added that they receive at least two cases in every three months and some victims hesitate to lodge complaints. “We are appealing the netizens to meet in person and not to fall prey to fraudsters”,  he added.