A 45-year old woman from Dombivli apparently has been duped of Rs 1.2 crore by a US resident. As per the woman’s story, she met the man on a matrimonial website and around 36 of his close associates over the last one and a half years.
This is how it all began
The man told the woman that he is a businessman from Los angeles and owns a 4BHK flat, which is what would have attracted the lady to befriend him. The accused contacted the woman on May 19, 2014 and said that he was looking for an Indian bride as he admired Indian woman.
The woman then said that the victim, after contacting her online, told her that he wanted to marry her very soon, which is why she trusted him blindly. That’s when the man started asking for money saying that he was in a financial crisis.
The woman trusted the man blindly
However, the woman blind in love, did not pay heed to the danger ahead and took several loans in order to supply him with the money. She even mortgaged one of her flats to "help him out" by transferring funds into various overseas accounts and now she is using her earnings to repay the mortgage.
The victim told TOI: "After I got cheated, I looked for and found several fake profiles online. The person who cheated me is once again active on the site with fake details."
At the first instance, the man said that he met with an accident in the UK and required Rs 26 lakh to fly back home. Another time her asked for Rs 4 lakhs for buying medicines. This pattern continued to play out till September 2015 which is when the woman was no longer in a position to repay the loans. This is when the man started avoiding her and she figured that something was wrong.
"After getting a report from Thane cyber cell, we registered a case against 37 people, including a man and others in whose name the accused had got funds deposited. We have forwarded the case to the cyber cell as it is an international fraud," said Sunil Shivadkar, senior PI, Ramnagar police, to the Times of India.
This incident throws light on the issue of cyber safety and how women and men should not be blindly trusting online user profiles, especially while taking important decisions in life such as looking for a future partner.
It also presses on the need of cyber security and what awareness the government needs to spread in order to prevent these incidents in the future.
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