The Hindu : New Delhi News : Alleged case of internet fraud

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Oct 16, 2004

New Delhi

New Delhi

Alleged case of internet fraud

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI, OCT. 15. In an alleged case of Internet fraud, a school dropout cheated a woman, working as systems engineer in the United States, of 39,000 dollars on the pretext of marrying her. The accused has been arrested by the Economic Offences Wing of the Delhi police.

According to the police, Anusuya Mohan, employed with a private cellular phone company in the US, had registered on "shaadi.com", a marriage website, in March 2003.

After a few days, a person, who introduced himself as Akhil Mukerjee and claimed to be a green card holder, contacted her. In the course of time, he convinced Anusuya that he was employed in a firm at Chicago and was earning more than 1.5 million dollars a month.

Over a period of time, Akhil created the entire story. He told Anusuya that after his father's death in his childhood, his mother had raised him and his sister. He further told the complainant that his sister was expecting a baby in July 2003.

On April 16, 2003, Akhil told Anusuya that his sister and brother-in-law had met with an accident in New Delhi and that the condition of his sister was critical. Pretending that he, along with his mother, was leaving for Delhi, Akhil kept sending e-mails to Anusuya saying that his sister's condition was improving after she had delivered a premature baby. Around the same time, Akhil also proposed Anusuya for marriage.

In June 2003, Akhil told Anusuya that he would be applying for a US citizenship so that he could take his sister for treatment there. He also told her that the US authorities had frozen his bank accounts as he had not been living there for the past many months.

Then, in September, Akhil asked Anusuya to help him with his sister's treatment. Anusuya immediately sent the money through the Western Union Money Transfer.

Akhil went further ahead and invited Anusuya and her family to India in January 2004.

However, once they reached here, he told them that his family was going to Singapore and that he could not meet them. The complainant returned to the US. In mid-April, Akhil told Anusuya that he was in Chicago. But he refused to meet her on some trifle pretext.

Realising that something was really amiss, Anusuya decided to find out about Akhil from his uncle, Bal Kishan. Akhil had mentioned his name to the complainant once but had not given any address. She, however, managed to trace him out on the Internet. Bal Kishan told her that Akhil was lying and that he had never stepped out of Delhi and that he ran a computer company which too had suffered losses.

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