Take the case of Neha Saxena, a city-based software engineer, who in the hope of getting a perfect match on a popular matrimonial website, ended up giving away Rs 30,000 to someone impersonating an All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) doctor.
“The profile seemed to be genuine and when he said he lost his wallet and credit cards, I tried to help him out,“ said a sobbing Neha, who said marriage was the last thing on her mind now. She has lodged a complaint at the Cyber Crimes police station.
Alarmingly , this is a not a one-off case as cyber matrimonial fraud is fast rising in the twin states, much to the worry of the cops. In the past six months alone, over 100 such cases have come to light. The city's cyber crimes wing has records of many cases in which women in the age group of 25 to 30 years were cheated by fake matrimonial profile owners. According to CID sleuths, the cases where a single person has duped several women too are on the rise. The police, in recent crackdowns, have managed to nab only three culprits.
“There was an instance where an employee of a star hotel, posing as an IIT graduate with a salary of Rs 50 lakh per annum, duped up to 11 women. However, only one woman was ready to lodge a complaint, which is also a reason for the lack of swift action,“ said U Rammohan, SP, Cyber Crimes, CID. In another instance, a fraudster from Visakhapatnam duped 54 women, he said.
It is not just women in their early and mid 20s who are being cheated via matrimonial fraud. “ A person had targeted women of above 35 years by placing adver tisements for remarriage,“ Rammohan said.
Top cyber crime specialists said that most women fail to report cases as they fear damage of reputation.In many cases, women are also subjected to physical molestation. “In the Vizag case, the accused even took pictures of women in compromising positions to blackmail them into getting him contacts of their friends, who later became victims,“ he said.
In most cases, the victims were contacted over phone and duped citing personnel emergency , including surgery . “Women part with the money thinking they will get it back later, but that does not happen.There were people who were cheated up to Rs 4 lakh,“ said M K Singh, DIG, CID.
Neha Saxena, who is still in touch with the person who duped her, said that she had given him the money thinking he was a surgeon at AIIMS. She gave Rs 30,000 on March 7 and Rs 20,000 more on March 20.
In most cases, fraudsters use profile information of actual persons to make contact with the victims to prevent suspicion, police informed.
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