‘There was no bride’: Inside the staged matchmaking operation targeting grooms

For men looking for a bride online, 'shaadipartner.com' seemed to offer what matrimonial websites promise: profiles, photographs, and a chance to speak directly to a prospective match. But behind such profiles, Delhi Police said, there were no brides at all.

There was a call centre in Agra, a group of women allegedly posing as prospective brides and their family members, and a series of payments dressed up as registration, activation and contact-unlocking fees. According to Delhi Police, the operation was busted after a Delhi man lost Rs 15,000 – realising only later that he had been speaking not to the woman in the photograph but to a tele-caller playing the part of a bride.

Senior police officials said the operation was run through a seemingly legitimate matrimonial firm and that its alleged mastermind was a 29-year-old practising advocate. "The investigation began after a complaint on the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal from the man, who was allegedly cheated through the matrimonial website ‘shaadipartner.com’," DCP (Central) Rohit Rajbir Singh.

Investigators found that his money allegedly went into a Central Bank of India current account registered in the name of M/s Shaadi Partner Com. Banking KYC records allegedly identified Jaya as the sole proprietor and authorised signatory, said officers.

Further investigation into the bank account where the money was deposited linked it to six complaints from across the country – each involving the same modus operandi – a senior police official said. Police said the operation was designed like a genuine matrimonial service.

"callers would identify men looking for brides, assess their financial background, and then send them photographs of women sourced online. The men were also shown dummy profiles created on shaadipartner.com, with screenshots sent to them to make the service appear genuine," Singh explained.

Once a man showed interest, the next step was a phone call. A woman employee would pose as the 'bride' and speak to the client, the police alleged. The conversations could continue for days, creating the impression that a genuine alliance was developing.

Officers said the woman would supposedly be found unsuitable because of Manglik dosh, family opposition, or because she had become engaged to someone else. If the client asked for more matches, more profiles were offered.

Some clients were also given contact details of ‘families’, who would then reject the prospective groom, citing social or economic differences, said police. If the client continued asking for matches, he would be told to wait until a suitable profile became available.

According to Singh, this could keep the victim engaged for two or three months before he was eventually told that his membership had expired. Police said clients could opt for packages — Mini, Medium, Ruby and Diamond — that ranged from Rs 2,500 to Rs 15,000.

The fraudsters, the DCP said, deliberately kept the financial loss to an individual victim low and tele-callers were instructed not to collect more than Rs 15,000 from any one person. The logic was simple: a smaller loss was less likely to trigger a complaint.

Singh described it as a “cheat small, cheat many” strategy, in which the operation could repeatedly target people while keeping individual losses relatively modest. Also Read | Date gone wrong: How Delhi cops busted honey trap-extortion racket The operation also had the appearance of a conventional business.

Police said the women were allegedly recruited through job platforms such as WorkIndia and Apna App and through newspaper advertisements. Police said the firm’s MSME registration, Labour Department registration, and franchise agreement were allegedly used to convince recruits that they were joining a legitimate matrimonial enterprise.

“‘Employees’ were paid a base salary of Rs 6,000-7,000 and received a 10% incentive on the money they managed to extract from victims,” a police official said. The women were allegedly given monthly targets as well. Each was expected to bring in at least Rs 15,000 in fraudulent collections, police said, failing which they faced ‘salary cuts’ or ‘termination’, according to police.