‘Turkish suitor’ & gifts of gold: Woman conned of Rs 1.3 crore
BENGALURU: A 33-year-old woman working at an international financial institution was defrauded of Rs 1.3 crore by a man she met on a popular matrimonial app. The man, claiming to be an Indian from Turkiye, said he had been detained by Bengaluru Airport officials as he was carrying a lot of gold to gift her.
To support his claims, Kunal (name changed) even sent her fake flight tickets and teamed up with a woman, who posed as an airport official, to demand money at immigration. Following this, Kunal and the woman continued to deceive Kamala (name changed) for about 35-40 days and conned her of a total of Rs 1.30 crore.
Kamala and Kunal connected through a matrimony app and quickly grew close. During their conversations, Kunal said he wanted to marry her, and mentioned that he would travel from Turkiye to meet her in Bengaluru. To back his claim, he sent her his passport details along with a flight ticket showing his journey from Turkiye to Bengaluru, via Mumbai.
Kamala, convinced by the details Kunal had provided, trusted him throughout their conversation. He then claimed he had been detained. Believing his story, and ready to help, Kamala transferred money to one of his accounts, as instructed. He requested more transfers to different accounts, and the process continued until he defrauded her of Rs 1.3 crore, after which he deleted his matrimonial profile.
Kamala realised it was a cyber fraud when she could not reach Kunal for over a week. Attempts to trace his number were unsuccessful too, as he had been using a Turkiye-registered number.
“Most of these scams, carried out through matrimonial apps or social media sites, do not initially seem like typical cyber frauds as they take time to build the victim’s trust,” Bengaluru Rural SP CK Baba said, adding that unlike usual cybercrimes, these scams do not begin with immediate money transfers.
“People, especially women, need to be extremely cautious when interacting with others on virtual platforms. With advancements like AI and deepfake technology, it is hard to tell how convincingly a fraudster can create something that appears genuine,” he said.
He stressed that if someone repeatedly asks for money, it is important to report to police, even if it turns out to be legitimate. The senior officer warned that people should remain vigilant and sceptical when engaging with anyone online, especially if asked for money.