In search of a partner to defraud
The Hindu
Matrimonial process has changed: digital sites, anonymity, fraudsters, financial losses, trauma, police highlight alarming trend, victims remain silent, honey trap, sweet talk, ₹8 lakh, blackmail, police nabbed woman, ₹4.5 lakh, emotional blackmail, register complaint online, matrimony.com advises caution, digital fraud challenge.
Until a few years ago, it was the good old family connections that played a crucial role in arranging marriages, introducing the bride’s family to the groom’s, even if not the bride to the groom. Though proposals came through familiar members of the family, parents went the extra mile, even employing private eyes to do a background check. However, increasingly over the last decade or so, the matrimonial process has undergone a big change, and has almost migrated online. Various kinds of matrimonial sites, offering to find life partners for various communities and groups, have since begun to take precedence in the big hunt. But as things went digital, a number of issues popped up, the important ones being the anonymity for users, the inability to gauge the true nature of people hiding behind aliases, and doctored photos.
More recently, the police have highlighted the alarming trend of prospective brides, bridegrooms and their families incurring substantial financial losses and undergoing trauma because of online fraudsters. Unfortunately, many victims remain silent fearing societal stigma, of being shamed, and its consequences. Most of them do not come forward to file a police complaint. Fraudsters, both men and women, randomly target people who register their profiles on matrimonial sites and a version of the honey trap follows. Having made the initial connect, they establish a false familiarity and switch over to text messaging platforms instead of communicating on the matrimonial sites so as to avoid being detected by the site administration.
Ashok Chaitanya, 29, of Vijayawada in Andhra Pradesh, settled a few years ago at Madhavaram in Chennai. Looking for a suitable girl for marriage, he registered his profile on a popular matrimony site and received a request from a girl. When he asked her whether his parents could go ahead with the alliance further, she said it was not time yet. However, she shared photos, supposedly of herself, and Mr. Chaitanya felt attracted to this woman whose pictures indicated she was bright and keen on self-grooming, presenting a sophisticated image of a person of culture, giving him the impression that she was above his station. She claimed she was working with an IT company, earning ₹1.5 lakh a month, adding that her family had property worth ₹5 crore.
The day she established contact with him, she asked him to transfer ₹900 to her account so she could pay for a food delivery since her debit card was blocked temporarily. Two days later, she sent a message seeking ₹30,000 to pay for a medical emergency. She said her salary account was on hold for two days and once it was cleared, she would repay him. She kept messaging him through WhatsApp for more than 20 days and she always ended the messages with “love you”.
“I fell flat for her sweet talk and was attracted to the photos she shared. She also said she liked me a lot,” Mr. Chaitanya admitted. “The moment you solve one problem, she will bring up another. One day, she called me up, saying she was in deep trouble. A financier was at her doorstep, causing a ruckus for non-payment of a loan of ₹3.9 lakh that she had obtained for her friend. She claimed that her friend had absconded without paying the money and it was embarrassing for her. She also said she had not settled the rent for six months. She pleaded for money, saying she would give it all back after her father gave her ₹5 lakh. Believing this, I made an online transfer of ₹4 lakh on a single day. I also couriered an almost new, sparingly used mobile phone worth around ₹65,000 to her.”
Mr. Chaitanya further said, “Whenever, I send money, she would say ‘I love you and will take care of you and all your needs. As soon as the marriage is over, my father will give ₹2 crore in dowry.’ I had a slight doubt then. But I thought she was the girl for me, I was enthralled by her sweet talk and gave this relationship my all.”
In the 22-day period of interaction, he gave her ₹8 lakh in all, apart from the phone. When he finally decided to put the brakes on paying her, she started blackmailing him. Using the numbers stored in the mobile phone (he did not delete the numbers) that he had presented to her, she called up his father and mother, spinning tales that he had borrowed money from her and impregnated her. That is when Mr. Chaitanya decided to lodge a complaint with the Cyber Crime Wing in the Avadi City Police limits. Meanwhile, she filed a complaint at the Madiwala police station in Bengaluru, alleging that he was harassing her for dowry. He was summoned to Bangalore and was shocked to see the girl of his dreams in real life — she looked nothing like the pictures she had sent him. However, he was lucky, as the police let him go after he told them of his complaint filed with the Cyber Crime Wing and the phone interactions.
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