A 27-year-old man have created fake profiles on matrimonial websites and establishes a relationship with eventual brides, and then trap them into lending him money.

Matrimonial sites have become the major platform to cheat and most of them grasp money from unsuspecting victims with their face profiles. One such investor was 27-year-old Kiran Ashok Bagwe, he previously used to work as an office boy in a private firm and gave it up and took up this 'e-dating' scam as a full- time business.

Bagwe would upload photos of gorgeous friends on his profile to attract prospective brides to notice him. He would then attract them with his superior English and realistic cover stories, and ruse them into lending him money.

The Bandra-Kurla Complex unit of the Cyber Crime police has received a complaint against him from a woman who was cheated by him with his tricks on a matrimonial site. She was about to get married to the accused and was cheated of Rs 1,57,360.

Nandkishore the assistant commissioner of police of Cyber Crime Cell, said, "The accused, who speaks fluent English, told his victims that he was a resident of Dadar and that he was interested in getting married to them."

He used to share all the false and ‘rich family background’ details but he used to refuse to meet them. "The women fell for the charming profile pictures and were easily attracted to him. He would then cook up a sob story of how he was in urgent need of money, saying his bank account had been sealed and his debit card was missing, and conned them into loaning him Rs 50,000."

The money has been transferred to him through online but she did not get a chance to meet him face to face as he did not agree to met her directly though if they strongly insisted upon such a meeting. The accused was arrested by police yesterday.

(Priyanka)