A man from Uttar Pradesh’s Muzaffarnagar was arrested for allegedly defrauding woman by posing as a rich bachelor on a matrimonial website, Delhi Police said today.
A senior official said that accused, identified as 26-year-old Vishal, conned woman on the website by pretending to be a rich bachelor looking for a marriage and defrauded them of lakhs of Rupees by swaying them to send him money on the pretext of acquiring cheap iPhones for them.
The official said that Vishal, an educated professional who previously worked at a multinational corporation (MNC) who later started his own business which bombed and after losing money in his business venture, he resorted to defrauding women on the matrimonial website.
As per the police, Vishal used pictures of expensive cars, and images of villas and farmhouses near Gurgaon to impress the women.
However, the matter came to light when a woman he defrauded of Rs 3.05 lakh, filed a complaint against him at northwest Delhi’s Keshavpuram police station.
According to the complaint, the woman, an MNC employee Gurugram, said her parents had created her profile on the matrimonial website where she came across Vishal profile in which he claimed to be an HR professional with annual income of Rs 50-70 lakhs.
The woman said she and her family liked the profile and after exchanging phone numbers, the two started texting on WhatsApp and Instagram where he sent her pictures of expensive cars and some villas and farmhouses which he claimed were his properties in Gurugram.
He also claimed to be the owner of a thriving food-chain in Gurugram and eventually the woman’s family decided to meet him.
The accused also offered to buy her an iPhone 14 Pro Max at below market price and convinced her to buy some for her family and friends too and eventually the woman ended up transferring Rs 3.05 lakh to him via eight UPI transactions.
After receiving the money, Vishal reportedly blocked her on social media and told her that he had been in an accident and was admitted in a Jaipur hospital.
The accused also stopped receiving her call and after a few days, the woman realized that she’d been conned.
A senior officer said that following the woman’s complaint, the police trapped the man by sent a request on his matrimonial site profile using a fake profile and it was noticed that he started to play the same game with the police decoy.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (Northwest) Jitendra Kumar Meena said the decoy asked for a meeting and the accused was arrested.
He said that Vishal confessed to the crime during initial interrogation and it was revealed that the accused worked as an HR professional at an MNC in Gurugram in 2018. He left the job in 2021 and opened a restaurant in Gurugram but that venture went bust following which he posed as a rich bachelor on the marriage website.
The accused also rented a luxury car for 15 days at Rs 2,500/day to keep up his appearance as a well-off businessman.