28-yr-old married woman flooded with marriage proposals after someone posts fake profile, with her phone number, on a matrimonial website
28-yr-old married woman flooded with marriage proposals after someone posts fake profile, with her phone number, on a matrimonial websiteu00a0u00a0
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MADE FOR EACH OTHER: Sandhya with her husband Tarun Desai on a holiday in Paris. (Picture has been blurred on request) |
Sandhya Desai (28), a happily married woman with a two-year-old son, has been flooded with calls and SMSes from across the globe, seeking her hand in marriage, after an unidentified person created a fake profile, with her phone number, on the website bharatmatrimony.com.
The Borivli resident, an operations manager with a local BPO, is not the only one who has been showered with marriage proposals. Close family friend, Amit Sevak, whose phone number was also added on her profile, has also been receiving calls for some time now.
Callers from London and Hong Kong have been calling in at unearthly hours to ask about his non-existent sister, who has been registered as Rebecca Gomes on the website.
Sevak, who works with 3 Global Services, believes that the person behind the fake profile is someone known to both the families.
Sandhya's husband, Tarun (35), who heads the local operations of a pharmaceuticals company, Tulip Edge, said Sevak has had to field questions like 'How does she look?', 'Is she a good cook?' and 'What are her hobbies?'.
"It has been a week since I complained to bharatmatrimony.com, but no action has been taken so far," Tarun said.u00a0
The website, however, is not convinced. "The system is designed in such a way that it does not create a profile without cross-checking the details," Muruguvel Janakira-man, founder and CEO of bharatmatrimony.com said.
Tarun disproved Muruguvel's contention by creating his own matrimonial profile on the same site (MiD DAY found the profile to be active) and asserted that nobody from the site had called him up for verification.
According to Janakiraman, the verification system was introduced four years ago.
"We have not received any complaints since then," he said. The website, however, assured that they would recheck all registrations to ensure a foolproof system.
(Names of the couple have been changed on request)
How the profile was made
> January 2, a profile is created under the name of Rebecca Gomes with Sandhya Desai's contact details
> January 5, the creator updates the profile; adds contact details of Amit Sevak
> January 7, name of the profile changes to Rebecca Lalwani
> While Rebecca Gomes is the name of Amit's former colleague in 3G, Lalwani is Sandhya's maiden name
Fake profile u00a0banao, jail jao
If caught, the creator of the fake profile will be booked under the Cyber Crime Act under the Indian Penal Code. The offence, if proved, can attract a minimum imprisonment of six months.
