Another victim hunting for love has fallen prey to deceptions from a matrimonial website profile.
RK Muniraja (45) is an electrician from Teachers’ Colony in Chikkaballapura town, 60 km from Bengaluru. He lost Rs 33 lakh to an 'Italian' woman who promised to marry him, according to a Times of India report.
After his divorce, Muniraja registered on a matrimonial site and met the fraudster on Aug. 31. “Call it stupidity or greed, I’ve lost everything," Muniraja told TOI. "I used to speak to her in broken English believing she was genuine. I appeal to all to be cautious while engaging strangers online.”
The alleged fraudster Daksha Patel J frequently chatted with him online and expressed interest in him. She said that she wanted to marry him.
She claimed to be rich and said that she would persuade her parents to accept their “marriage”. She informed Muniraja that she would transfer Rs 1.5 crore to his bank account when she moved to India.
Patel told Muniraja that she was heading to India on Sept. 8, along with the cash in foreign currency. She called him up saying that customs officials had detained her at Delhi airport for carrying such a large cash amount.
She told him that she needed a clearance certificate for foreign currency and had to pay the customs officials in Indian currency. Muniraja, feeling sorry for her, got loans and withdrew Rs 5 lakh from his savings to transfer Rs 33 lakh to the bank accounts that she sent him.
Once the money was transferred, Patel’s phone numbers were shut down. A bank manager informed Muniraja that he was a victim of fraud.
Muniraja had intended to settle the loans he raised for the fraudster by paying one lakh per month as interest.