From cyberslave to conman: Man held in Rs 46 lakh fraud

Posing as a woman on a matrimonial platform, Alam extracted a total of `46 lakh from a 47-year-old Karnataka businessman over several months before getting arrested at the Bengaluru airport on Friday. Police on Monday got his custody for seven days.

A police officer said the victim is from Uttara Kannada district. “In May, he came across a profile named Aishani on the website Nikahforever.com. Between June 21 and July 23, the man transferred `36 lakh in the name of trading and gifts to ‘Aishani’,” said the officer.

Alam is a biomedical sciences dropout. He had travelled to Phnom Penh on April 29 for what he thought was a data entry job. But he was taken to a different location where he became part of an eight-member team that scammed people in India over the internet.

The work conditions, unsurprisingly, were what one would expect from a criminal enterprise of that nature. Alam’s employers withheld his monthly payment of $600 as well as his “incentives”. Unhappy, he made his move.

Said the officer mentioned above: “Alam claims he was unhappy and decided to leave the place. But it was not easy, as he was in the clutches of cybercriminal kingpins. For his ‘performance’ — stealing large sums of money — he was rewarded with a half-day outing. He says he used it to reach the Indian Embassy in Phnom Penh, which helped him return to India.”

After returning, Alam bought another SIM card and continued chatting with the Uttara Kannada man in the guise of Aishani. The victim continued to send money and gifts whenever asked. “In one instance, Alam came to the Hyderabad airport claiming to be Aishani’s servant to collect a Macbook dispatched by the victim,” said the officer.

By now, with no response to his overtures for marriage, the Uttara Kannada man finally started getting suspicious. He filed a complaint with Uttara Kannada district’s CEN (cybercrime, economic offences and narcotics) police station.

The Deputy SP of the police station, B Ashwini, told the businessman to continue the conversations. Police also found out that it was Alam who was cheating the victim.

Alam then overreached. As Aishani, he asked the businessman for `40 lakh for “her mother’s medical treatment”. This time, police were waiting for him at Bengaluru airport.

A police officer who was part of the probe said: “We checked the names of people who were reaching from other cities to Bengaluru and there was only one person with the name Alam. While Aishani had told the victim that she was coming from Hyderabad, police found out that Alam was coming from Delhi.”

Ashwini, the Deputy SP, said: “We have checked the IP address and other details. Alam was in Cambodia and had cheated many Indians from there. We have a lot to investigate in the matter. In total, the Karnataka victim lost `46 lakh.”