Matrimony app fraud: Resident of Mira Bhayandar duped of Rs 2.75L by man claiming to be pilot from France

Mumbai: A 36-year-old woman was duped of Rs 2.75 lakh recently on a matrimonial app by a man. The fraudster who claimed to be a pilot from France told the victim that he is coming to India to meet her.

He then told the victim that he has been detained at the Delhi airport as he did not have some documents and needed Rs 2.75 lakh to get free. The woman transferred him the asked amount only to find out later that she had been cheated.

Victim got suspicious after asked for more Rs 6.5 lakh

According to the Navghar police, the victim works in a private company in Thane and is a resident of Bhayandar. The victim had received a message on the app from a person who claimed to be a pilot from France. The said person told the victim that he liked her after which they began chatting on WhatsApp.

During one of the conversations, the accused had told the victim that he would come to India to meet the victim and her parents. Few days later, the accused called the victim stating that he has reached Delhi airport and had been caught by the airport authorities since he did not had some documents and asked the victim to help him.

Then onwards, on various pretexts, the fraudster induced the victim to pay Rs 2.75 lakh. When the accused asked for more Rs 6.50 lakh, the victim suspected something amiss and confronted him. Initially the accused kept promising to return her money once he reaches back to France but later on he started avoiding victim's phone calls. 

Having realised that she had been duped, the victim approached the police and got a complaint registered in the matter last Friday. The police have registered a case under sections 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) of the Indian Penal Code and sections 66C (identity theft) and 66D (cheating by personation by using computer resource) of the Information Technology Act.