A 26-year-old man was arrested for allegedly defrauding women on a matrimonial website by posing as a rich bachelor, police said on Friday.
Vishal, a resident of Muzaffarnagar in Uttar Pradesh, pretended to be a rich bachelor looking for a suitable bride. He used expensive cars to impress the victims, they said.
The police said he allegedly convinced the victims to transfer money on the pretext of acquiring iPhones at cheaper rates for them.
Vishal is an educated professional and worked at a multinational corporation (MNC). After suffering losses in his business venture, he decided to dupe women and earn easy money, the police said.
The matter came to light after a victim, who was duped of Rs 3.05 lakh, lodged a complaint at Keshavpuram police station in northwest Delhi.
The woman, who 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 a man who claimed to be an HR professional with an income of Rs 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 chain 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 alleged.
Influenced by him, the woman transferred Rs 3.05 lakh to him through UPI in eight transactions.
However, after getting the money, the man 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 her calls and, after some days, the victim realised that she had been duped, the police said.
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 manner.
However, after the decoy asked him to meet, the police nabbed 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," 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 Rs 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.