Hyderabad: More than 80 per cent of matrimonial fraud victims are post-graduates and above, and in the age group of 35 to 40 years. Out of the total cases registered with the cyber crime cell, nearly 10 per cent are related to matrimonial frauds while more than 50 per cent of the complaints are related to spreading abusive content on social media with WhatsApp and Facebook in the lead.
According to officials from the cyber crime cell, most victims of matrimonial frauds are in the age group of 35 to 40 years and highly qualified with good incomes. In most of the cases, they are not dependent on their parents and at times are not ready to listen to their parents in issues related to marriage. These are the most vulnerable groups for such frauds. The fraudsters usually target only women above 35, when they are desperate to get married, said officials.
The fraudsters analyses the profiles on matrimonial sites like Bharat Matrimony, Telugu Matrimony and Shaadi.com and target such profiles. Initially they start with a self-introduction and get close to the victim. Most of them use high designations in the USA or UK. Few even say that they are working on a United Nations peace mission and cannot reveal their details.
In a recent incident, a crook pretending to be a US Army doctor trapped a private BPO employee who is an MBA graduate.
She realised that she was cheated after paying Rs 1.2 lakh to him. “Once they enter into a deeper level of the relation, they start extracting money. Few victims have even sold their properties believing the tales,” said Hyderabad cyber crime ACP Ismail.
More than 50 per cent of the cases registered are related to spreading abusive content on social media, including men posting obscene pictures of their former girl friends or wives, followed by nearly 35 per cent credit and debit card frauds. While 10 per cent account to matrimonial frauds, the rest are cases related to various job frauds, insurance frauds etc. Nearly 350 cases were registered in Hyderabad and around 190 cases with the Cyberabad cyber crime cell in 2015.
