Bengaluru school teacher's online love turns costly, loses Rs 2.3 cr to ‘caring US man’

Representative image of a police van.

A 59-year-old teacher from Bengaluru, seeking companionship after losing her husband, was allegedly defrauded of Rs 2.27 crore by a man she met on a matrimonial website.

The elaborate scam, which unfolded over five years, saw the victim repeatedly sending money after being convinced by the fraudster's feigned affection and a series of fabricated emergencies.

The victim, a resident of East Bengaluru who works at a central government-run school, approached the East Division of the Cybercrime, Economic Offences and Narcotics (CEN) wing on 3rd October. As reported by The Indian Express, the police have since registered a case against the unidentified man, who presented himself as ‘Aahan Kumar’, a US citizen and drilling engineer from Atlanta.

The woman’s ordeal began in December 2019 on the portal jeevansathi.com. The profile for ‘Aahan Kumar’ claimed he held a postgraduate degree from Georgia University and worked for the Lukoil company on a rig in the Black Sea. The two developed a relationship and decided to marry, with communication primarily happening over WhatsApp.

The fraudster’s strategy, as detailed in the police report, relied on a carefully constructed persona of concern and maturity. The First Information Report (FIR) records the victim’s statement that she was “impressed by his mature behaviour, caring attitude, etc.” This ‘caring nature’ laid the groundwork for the first financial request in January 2020, a small amount for food, which the woman sent out of kindness to a contact named Madhavi.

He allegedly assured her that all money taken would be considered a loan, to be repaid in full once his six-month contract ended and his company paid his fees. “Trusting his words and respecting the bond we shared, I agreed to his demands,” the woman stated in the FIR.

Over the next five years, the requests for money escalated dramatically. Investigators reportedly said that ‘Kumar’ invented a cascade of crises to justify the transfers. These reasons included repairing drilling machines damaged in a storm, paying fines to officials and covering medical treatment costs. Blinded by trust, the woman continued to send money, eventually transferring a staggering Rs 2.27 crore, funds she had availed as loans from various banks.

The spell was finally broken in November of this year when ‘Kumar’ made a further request for Rs 3.5 lakh. This fresh demand triggered the woman’s suspicion. When she asked for all her money back, he reportedly dodged her with false assurances. It was only after she confided in friends and relatives that she was urged to file a formal complaint.

The East CEN police have invoked sections 66(c) and 66(d) of the Information Technology Act, pertaining to identity theft and cheating by personation using computer resources, along with Section 318(4) of the new Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita for cheating.