Delhi Police arrested a U.P man for posing as a rich bachelor on matrimonial websites, and using it to run a scam to extract money from suitable brides, on Friday in the city.
Vishal, a 26 year-old resident of Muzaffarnagar in Uttar Pradesh, pretended to be a suitable bachelor looking for a bride. He used expensive cars to "impress" the women, they said, adding that he even showed pictures of villas and farmhouses near Gurgaon as his own.
The police said he allegedly convinced the women to transfer money under the pretext of acquiring iPhones at cheaper rates for them.
Vishal is an educated professional and worked at a multinational corporation (MNC). He also started his own business. After suffering losses in his business venture, Vishal decided to operate his scam for easier cashflow access, the police said.
He was caught, after a woman who was cheated of ₹ 3.05 lakh, filed a complaint at Keshavpuram police station in Northwest Delhi.
The woman, who also worked at an MNC in Gurugram, and her parents had created a profile on a matrimonial website. While looking for suitable matches, she came across the profile of Vishal, who claimed to be an HR professional with an income of ₹ 50-70 lakh per annum.
Her family liked his profile and sent him a request. After exchanging phone numbers, the woman started chatting with him on WhatsApp and Instagram.
"In March 2023, he sent her pictures of expensive cars and asked her (for her) choice. He showed (pictures of) some villas and farmhouses as his properties in Gurugram in order to impress her. He also projected his well-off business of food chains in Gurugram," the woman alleged in her complaint.
In the process, he won over the trust of the woman's family and they decided to meet him.
He also offered to buy the woman an iPhone 14 Pro Max at a cheaper rate and convinced her to buy it in order to earn a profit. He also convinced her to buy the phones for her relatives and friends, she further alleged. Influenced by him, the woman transferred ₹ 3.05 lakh to him through UPI in eight separate transactions.
After getting the money, Vishal blocked her on social media and informed her that he had been involved in an accident and was admitted in a Jaipur hospital. He stopped attending to her calls and soon, the woman then realised that she had been robbed, the police said in their own statement.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (Northwest) Jitendra Kumar Meena said a few days after receiving the complaint, a police decoy sent the man a request on the same site. He accepted the request and started to influence the decoy in a similar fashion. Using the information they had received, they flushed him out based on his pattern.
Finally, the decoy asked him to meet, after which the police apprehended the man.
"During interrogation, he confessed to his involvement in the cheating. He disclosed that after completing his BCA and MBA from Delhi, he 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 was not successful," DCP Meena said.
Vishal allegedly created a profile on the matrimonial site and posed as a rich bachelor. He also hired a luxury car for 15 days through an app for ₹ 2,500 a day to keep up the pretence, the official added.
The police are making efforts to trace Vishal's possible involvement in other similar complaints. They are also scrutinising his bank account details, to gauge the extent of fradulent activities he may have been engaged in.
