Made in Hell

Today’s technological era has made it possible to search suitable life partner online seem easy. However, world is full of fraud people and online matrimony websites world is not any exception. A Fraudster typically create fake online profile designed to lure you. They may use a fictional name, or falsely take on the identities of real, trusted people such as military personnel, aid workers or professionals working anywhere locally or globally.

Given the fact that there are numerous advantages associated with online matrimonial services, for example, a large database of candidates to choose from, profiles from various geographical locations and clear information about what a candidate seeks in a partner. It’s not surprising to find people, including their parents or relatives or even their friends, using these online platforms to help find a suitable bride or groom for their near or dear ones. Still, there have been many instances of people being duped by scammers found on matrimonial websites with the sole intention to take advantage of genuine people searching for marriage partner, often via matrimony websites, apps or social media by pretending to be prospective companions. They target and play with emotional triggers to get you to provide money, gifts or personal details which they want to use against you and extort money in return.

If you happen to rely on such websites to find a life partner, here are a few warning signs and advices to spot fake accounts or imposters which I have noticed personally as well as got to know through others experience.

Warning Signs Mostly seen while dealing with fraudsters:

• Their profile descriptions and messages are often poorly written, vague with grammatical errors.

• The profile is unverified in most cases. Some websites give tag of verified to any profile which gets their phone number registered even without absence of identity proof documents.

• Fraudsters usually upload fake photos or no photos at all. Those images uploaded are either of a model or a good looking person or some real person’s photo taken from social media. Such profiles make great impressions, get numerous responses and often gets overlooked from the matchmaking site’s scrutiny.

• Their profile on the matrimony website or their Facebook page is not consistent with what they tell you during chatting or talking.

• Fraudsters create their online matrimonial profile within a short time by copying and pasting from other user’s profile. For instance, a fake user mentions him/her as a doctor in the profile description but says an entirely different degree and experience in other columns.

• Scammers will express strong emotions for you in a relatively short period of time, even before completely knowing everything about you. At times, they will even lure you with sugar-coated tags such as, “honey”, “love” etc. In most cases, genuine matrimonial profiles move at a steady pace and share the same concerns as yourself. Their manner of responding to you can be felt differently compared to the fraudsters.

• They respond quickly to your interests but delay when you enquire about them. Mostly they will block you away on the chatting platforms if you ask personal questions to know them because they get threatened that you might have sensed their hidden ulterior motives.

• Sometimes, fraudsters get angry or uneasy when you ask them to get their profile identity verified. They may accuse you to be suspicious. Still, ask them to get verification done if they want to be taken as genuine. If they don’t cooperate with your request for verification then you know their reality by their reaction and its wise to stop communication immediately.

Advice regarding dealing with suspicious matrimony profiles:

 If you remain alert enough then it becomes easy to sense fraudsters even with the way their biodata is written and presented.

 Remain vigilant of an individual who is frequently making changes in his/her profile such as traits, caste, salary, occupation, etc.

 Whenever you feel suspicious of any fake profile based on unverified status and information presented online, do ask them for recent pictures and do image search on google to see where else was that image used. You can catch fraudsters easily sometimes with just this image search trick.

 While looking for prospects on matrimonial sites, family involvement is almost inevitable. However, if the person on the other side tries to keep the details of their family under wraps, take it as a red flag and don’t proceed talks with such a person.

 Once you start talking to your prospect, observe how they react and listen to your intuition. In most instances, a fraudster will suggest you move the relationship away from the website to a more private channel, such as phone, email or instant messaging. Try to ask questions and observe their responses to save yourself wasting time on fake people.

 They often claim to be working or travelling overseas. Scammers will go to great lengths to gain your interest and trust, such as showering you with loving words, sharing sob stories or sending you gifts. As for example, a fraudster will tell you that their loved one is gravely sick and need urgent money for treatment, or they often claim to be working or travelling overseas and sent you a gift as parcel, for which you need to pay hefty amount of money to receive it. Once they have gained your trust and your defences are down, they will ask you either subtly or directly for money, gifts or your banking/credit card details. Be vigilant and cease any communication with such a person immediately.

 If someone is bragging about her/his status to an unexpected level without any sign of verification, stop conversing with such person.

 If you find other missing information that is necessary, like educational background, job position, age, then stay away from such matrimonial profiles.

All in all, a genuine, well-qualified person will never hesitate to share his original position and answer your questions and cooperate with you because they will share same thoughts regarding knowing a person better by asking more about each other while a fraudster will behave irrationally and make you feel as if you are suspecting unnecessarily. If your gut feeling makes you feel suspicious of someone and when someone is forcing you to make a quick decision then better be alert. Always remain mindful, use sound judgement and do not succumb to such a pressure and simply walk away from suspicious profiles.Report them on the matrimony website first and in case you got tricked then take help of cyber police or other relevant law authorities of your country to stop that hellish fraudster from duping other innocent people in search for life partner online.