Man Poses As Matrimonial Site Representative, Dupes A Person Of Rs 5 Lakh

A man was arrested for allegedly defrauding a person by posing as a representative of a matrimonial site, police said on Monday.

The accused, Jafir Ansari, from Jargarhi village in Jharkhand's Deoghar district, was arrested from Chennai on Sunday, they said.

Police recovered 14 mobile phones, a silver bar, eight Aadhaar cards, six ATM and credit cards, and a PAN card from his possession, officials added.

A man lodged a complaint in Cyber Crime police station (South) alleging that on December 2, Rs 1988 was automatically debited from his bank account as a part of the company's auto-pay feature, they said.

On December 3, he searched for the platform's customer care number online to deactivate the auto-pay feature, police said.

After contacting a number listed on the internet, he received a return call after sometime. The caller claimed to assist him and later switched to a WhatsApp call, citing network issues, they said.

In his complaint he said that the caller sought personal information, under the guise of help. Sensing something was amiss, the complainant contacted his bank's customer care to close his account, the police said.

However, by then Rs 5 lakh had already been withdrawn from his account, they added, citing his complaint.

Following the complaint, an FIR was registered and a team led by Inspector Naveen Kumar traced and arrested the accused, the police said.

During interrogation, Ansari revealed that he and his associates posed as the matrimonial site's customer care representatives, using manipulated contact numbers that appeared in online search results, they said.

The accused targeted users seeking assistance, gaining access to sensitive bank account information by sending malicious links and persuading victims to share their screens, Assistant Commissioner of Police (Cyber) Priyanshu Dewan said.

He said that efforts are underway to nab the rest of Ansari's associates. 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)