Marriage, cyber crooks’ latest bait to hook women

Surat: Woman in the age group of 30 to 50, unmarried or widows, are on cyber crooks’ radars now. Unlike online harassment, these frauds hook women through baits disguised as marriage and settling abroad offers.
In the recent past, multiple such fraud cases have been reported in the city in which women were duped of lakhs in online friendship with proposals to marry.

Friendship that started with WhatsApp messages resulted in loss of Rs 57 lakh for a 57-year-old woman. Initially, the sender claimed the message was sent by mistake in May 2022, but later they developed friendship. The person introduced himself as a French national and showed interest in marrying the woman, who was unmarried.
He then claimed that he sent her gifts and a few days later the woman received a call asking for fees to release the gift parcel from the airport. A few days later, the accused claimed that he had come to India personally to meet the woman, but was detained at the airport. He kept demanding more and more money and the woman paid a total Rs 57 lakh within a few months.
Following investigation, the police arrested Benard Chukwunonso Alexander Onuorah (28), a a Nigerian national, for cheating the woman.
In a recent offence, a 37-year-old unmarried school teacher from city’s Muglisara area was duped by her online friend. The accused claimed that he is living in London and offered to marry the woman. Later, the woman received calls from unidentified persons asking her to pay to exchange pounds into Indian rupees. The accused took a total Rs 17.48 lakh from her in multiple transactions for various charges.
In another incident, Mahesh Gosai (56), a grocery shop owner from Amran village of Morbi, was arrested on March 16 for allegedly duping a 56-year-old widow promising marriage and shifting to London. They developed friendship through Instagram and started chatting. They then talked over phone and the accused took money and jewellery totalling Rs 12 lakh from the woman claiming to arrange for her visa and other expenses.
“Trusting online friends blindly and entering into financial transactions is the common factor in most cyber crimes. Any individual should be extra cautious while entering in any online relationship,” said a police officer.