A 29-year-old woman from Pydhonie became the latest victim of matrimony fraud when a fraudster posing as a civil engineer duped her on the pretext of marriage. The woman who was convinced that the fraudster would marry her ended up paying Rs 10 lakh until she realised her mistake. The fraud came to light only when the woman found the fraudster's picture on the same matrimony site with a different identity.
According to the people the woman working with a Powai based company approached them after being cheated for Rs 10 lakh. In July the woman liked the profile of one Hasan Jamal on a matrimonial site and sent him an interest request. According to the profile, Jamal is a civil engineer based in London. Soon after the victim showed interest, Jamal accepted her request and they began chatting.
During their conversation Jamal claimed that he was currently working in Syria on a United Nations mission, he further claimed that he was a project manager there and that they are rebuilding the area which was devastated in the war-torn nation.
According to the woman's statement, Jamal further claimed that soon his parents would visit her place in Mumbai for discussing the marriage ceremonies and also stated that he had also applied for leave. However, he said that he needed to pay money to get his leave approved. Since he was in Syria all his accounts had been freezed and he requested the woman to pay the amount. Unaware of the fraud, the woman transferred Rs 10 lakh in parts to the accounts sent by him.
A few days ago, while surfing on the matrimonial portal, she was shocked to find Jamal's photograph but this time he had taken the identity of some Azahar Khan. The woman confronted Jamal with the other profile however, he could not give any satisfactory answers and blocked the woman instead. The woman then realised her mistake and approached Pydhonie police.
On her complaint we have registered a case of online cheating and we have written to banks asking details of bank accounts in which the money was transferred. We are also trying to trace the accused through his phone number, said a police officer.
