Online fraud: Man nabbed for duping woman

CHENNAI: A 33-year-old impersonator claiming himself to be an ortho surgeon from the United States was nabbed by Cyber Crime Wing after he cheated a woman by luring her with a marriage proposal and making away with `11.5 lakh, which he claimed was for her visa.

R Kumar Durai, aka Prasanth Prasad, approached the woman with an autistic child, through a matrimonial website claiming to be an ortho surgeon in the United States. Asking her to come to the US to move forward with the marriage proposal, he made a promise to get her visa (K1/K2 Visa). To apply for the visa, he asked her to send him `11.5 lakh.

The woman who paid the sum, later realised she had been cheated. She never got the visa and he never contacted her again. She approached police in September following which special teams were formed to investigate the case.

During the investigation, police found that the man who posed himself as a doctor was a resident of Guduvanchery near Chennai. He had cheated several women impersonating himself as Dr Prashanth, Gowtham, George among many names.

He was produced before the Alandur judicial magistrate and remanded to judicial custody. Police advised the public to exercise caution while dealing with strangers on the matter of matrimonial websites.