It’s the age of online dating, WhatsApp dating and speed dating and basically all kinds of dating where you don’t actually meet in person. Where you chat on online channels, possibly share personal information and what comes next is nothing short of a horror story. This is the latest means of cheating hapless Goan women out of lakhs and lakhs of money through these matrimonial websites.
Fraud on matrimonial websites
According to an article in today’s TOI, the cyber crime cell of the Goa police said that an average of 8 cases is reported each year of women being cheated out of money, on the pretext of getting married.
Many women looking for their happily ever after online are falling prey to fraudsters and swindlers that disappear with lakhs of money. In some cases its as much as 24 lakhs and above. What’s worse is that these women are so embarrassed at being taken for fools that they do not report such crimes to the police.
In a recent incident, a young businesswoman from North Goa was cheated out of approximately 8 lakhs via a matrimonial website. She signed up on a reputed website in September 2017. Within two weeks, the fraudster contacted her. He requested for her mobile phone number and started chatting on Whatsapp. He said he was from Calangute but working in Afghanistan. “I used to get internet calls and messages from a UK number but it did not strike me how he could be in Afghanistan with a UK number,” she told TOI.
In another case, an unknown person cheated a woman from Panjim of approximately 9 lakhs on the pretext of marrying her. The conman met the victim on a social networking site and gained her trust. Later, he started demanding money from the victim and asked her to deposit the money in different banks.
Catching such con artists is difficult
Unfortunately, it’s very difficult to nab such perpetrators. These kinds of calls are made from fake numbers over the internet and from foreign countries. Crime branch superintendent of police Karthik Kashyap told TOI, “they lure women by sending them expensive gifts and asking them to provide money to release those items from customs.”
He even added that at times, fraud calls are also made in the name of customs officials to pay the amount.
Source – TOI
