Man cheats 50 women via roommate's fake profile

A35-year-old man from Rajkot was arrested by cyber crime officials for creating the fake profiles of his roommate and misusing his and his family members' photographs on social media platforms as well as a marriage portal.

Investigation revealed that the accused, Bipinkumar Mehta (35), had duped around 50 women using the fake profiles.

As per the complaint lodged with the cyber crime cell of Ahmedabad Crime Branch, Mehta, resident of Mahavirnagar Sheri, Gandhigram, Rajkot, stayed in London from 2012 to 2016. There he used to share the room with one Parth Dalal. During their stay together, he got all information about Dalal's family.

Soon after returning to Gujarat in 2016, he created a fake profile in the name of Prashant Pandya on a marriage portal as well as several social media platforms. There he uploaded pictures of Parth, his wife and his brother on a marriage portal as well as social media sites.

With this assumed identity he chatted with about 50 women. He used to impress them by telling them that he lived in London and even lured them into sending their photographs. This was besides the interactions he had with 25 other women via a popular messenger.

How his game ended

The entire fraud came to light when one of the women with whom Mehta was in touch via the fake profile contacted Dalal's wife and asked her if she knew anyone by the name of Prashant Pandya. She alerted Dalal and he in turn informed his younger brother of the misuse of their photographs.

The latter then lodged a complaint with the cyber crime cell. Mehta was arrested on Thursday on the basis of IP logs and technical analysis.

Not the only fraud

Besides creating fake profiles to lure women, Mehta had also started a You Tube channel 'Gujju Nakhrawadi' on which he posted popular videos, passing them as his own.

His target was to get 20,000 likes so that he would be eligible to get Rs 20,000 as per the site.

Cyber Crime PI G S Gedam said, "We have arrested Mehta and have taken him on remand to probe how many women he has cheated and to what extent."