City girl escapes 'matri'money fraud

By Dheeraj Fartode

IT WAS surely a novel attempt by this conman. He wanted to make money from matrimony but the plan fell flat due to a city girl’s alacrity in the nick of time. Going a step ahead of the fake mails that give million dollars as prize money to unsuspecting victims, this fraudster had created a fake profile on a matrimonial site to lure naive girls into financial transactions on pretext of tying nuptial knot.

The girl Ravina (name changed) had registered herself at popular matrimonial websitejeevansathi.com in January 2014 by paying three months subscription. Soon she got a request from one Dr Mohit Deshpande, claiming to be a London-based cardiologist. The picture was of a handsome young man, and the profile ticked all boxes as required by a prospective groom.

As friendship grew, Ravina and Dr Mohit started chatting on-line. The youth was active on net only after 11 pm Indian time. He told her that he was a native of Jalgaon district, working at the prestigious ‘The Heart Hospital’ in London. After chatting for around a fortnight, the girl received a call from the youth from no +442838080604. He sounded a well-educated guy speaking fine English in a British accent, the girl told ‘The Hitavada’.

The girl’s family was also impressed with the young man. Ravina soon got a marriage proposal following which her elder brother had a chat with the man. He asked for phone numbers of his relatives but the youth parried it stating that he was going to Iraq to provide medical aid to injured persons. Fifteen days later he yet again called Ravina asking for marriage. Her family members, too, gave their nod. The man asked Ravina to get a bank locker and book a five star hotel for marriage in Nagpur.

As preparations were on, the man came up with an interesting story. He told Ravina that during their operation in Iraq his team found large stash of dollars and his commander distributed the amount among themselves.

The conman told Ravina that he had dispatched a parcel containing dollars and she would get it on June 30. He also asked the girl to pay Rs 1 lakh to receive the parcel.

The demand for money made the girl suspicious and she narrated this story to her teacher. The lady teacher immediately searched the youth’s profile and was shocked to discover that he was a fraudster who had duped at least seven Indian girls. He had used three profile pictures of Dr Muhammad Usman Saeed Chaudhary, who is a cardiologist at The Heart Hospital, London.

Detailed information about the accused was uploaded on www.romancescam.com. The girl has thanked her stars but the family is yet to recover from the rude shock. The family apporached Sitabuldi police station and submitted a complaint. However, the police is yet to register the case. 

How to identify fake profile on matrimonial sites? 

If you are preferring on-line matrimonial sites for marriage then best tool to identify whether the profile is fake is webcam. You must ask the person to come on webcam for live chatting. If photograph of the person is fake, he will avoid on-line video chatting.