Delhi Police busts pan-India matrimonial cyber fraud

Delhi Police has busted a pan-India matrimonial cyber fraud racket allegedly run from Agra by a 29-year-old practicing advocate, who used fake profiles, staged conversations with women posing as prospective brides and multiple payment demands to dupe men seeking marriage.

Amit Kumar allegedly operated a fake matchmaking service under the name “Shaadi Partner” and deliberately capped the fraud at Rs 15,000 per victim, a strategy police said was aimed at discouraging complaints.

The firm was also registered under the MSME and UP Labour Department, while banking channels and SIM cards were procured in its name, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Central) Rohit Rajbir said.

Police registered an FIR after a complainant alleged that he was lured through a website and cheated of Rs 15,000 on the pretext of registration, profile access, activation and contact unlocking charges.

Investigation into the complaint led police to a current account registered in the name of “MS Shaadi Partner Com”, into which the money had been deposited. Analysis of the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal (NCRP) database showed that the account was linked to six complaints from different parts of the country involving a similar modus operandi, police said.

A police team raided a fully operational call centre at an apartment in Agra on September 4 and arrested a 44-year-old woman who was the proprietor of the firm on paper. Eight female tele-callers were also apprehended, officials said.

During interrogation, the woman allegedly disclosed Kumar’s role in the operation.  According to police, Kumar had created a layered arrangement to distance himself from the alleged fraud. He allegedly floated the proprietorship firm “M/s Shaadi Partner Com” in the woman’s name and executed a franchise agreement with Netnexis Solutions (OPC) Pvt Ltd.

Kumar allegedly portrayed himself as the firm’s “legal advisor”, allowing him to claim that he was merely providing legal services and was not responsible for the call centre’s operations, police said. After learning about the raid, Kumar switched off his mobile phones and went underground, police said. Technical surveillance helped investigators track him to Agra.

He was intercepted in the Kala Kunj area of Agra on September 8 while travelling in an SUV, police said. Kumar showed his UP State Bar Council credentials and claimed he was only a legal counsel. However, investigators confronted him with digital evidence allegedly linking him to the operation, following which he was arrested, they said.

Police said the syndicate had been operating for around a year and specifically targeted men seeking brides. The accused allegedly sourced contact numbers of matrimonial seekers from its website as well as matchmaking pages, groups and comments on social media.

Female tele-callers contacted the men and assessed their financial background before sending them photographs of women sourced from the internet as prospective brides. Once a victim showed interest, the callers allegedly demanded money in stages under different heads, including registration, file activation, security deposits and membership packages ranging from Rs 2,500 to Rs 15,000.

To make the operation appear genuine, dummy profiles of clients were allegedly created on the website, and screenshots were sent to them. When a victim wanted to speak to a woman whose photograph had been shown to him, another female employee allegedly posed as the prospective bride during conference calls, police said. The women would speak to victims for several days before rejecting the proposed alliance on pretexts such as “Manglik dosh”, family disapproval or the woman having been engaged elsewhere.

If the victims sought more matches, the callers allegedly provided details of other families whose profiles were already available on the portal.

These purported matches too would reject the victims, citing social or economic differences, police said. In cases where victims continued demanding matches, they were allegedly asked to wait until a suitable profile became available, allowing the accused to prolong the membership for two or three months before declaring them expired.

The employees were allegedly paid a base salary of Rs 6,000-7,000 and a 10 per cent incentive on the amount they collected from victims. Each caller was given a target of collecting at least Rs 15,000 in fraudulent collections every month, with salary cuts or termination threatened for poor performance, police said.

Seven desktop CPUs, 47 mobile phones, including basic keypad phones used by the tele-callers, Rs 50,000 in cash and an SUV were recovered during the investigation, officials said. Police said technical data and digital devices seized from the call centre indicate that the number of victims could be in the thousands.

Investigators are analysing WhatsApp chats, digital records and bank account trails to identify additional victims and determine the total amount involved in the alleged fraud.