Matrimonial fraud: what it is and how the fraud actually runs

By Advocate Panchanand Shaw, Bar Council of West Bengal · Published 1 Nov 2026 · Cyber crime

Matrimonial fraud is often imagined as a wedding that is called off after the gifts are taken. In practice the loss usually happens months earlier, during a courtship conducted almost entirely through messaging, in which the person on the other side builds a plausible life, introduces a family that may be hired for the purpose, and then encounters an emergency that only money can solve. The emergency is the trap.

The distinguishing feature is not the lie. People exaggerate on matrimonial platforms, and exaggeration alone is not an offence. The offence begins where a false identity or false circumstance is used to obtain property, or where the promise of marriage is used to obtain money, documents or sexual compliance. That distinction decides the case, which is why the record of what was said, when, and in exchange for what, matters most.

What counts as matrimonial fraud and what does not

Three elements have to come together for a criminal case: a false representation about a material fact, reliance on that representation by the victim, and delivery of property or money as a result. Where any one of the three is missing, the dispute is usually a family or civil matter, not a fraud.

The representation is material when it goes to identity, marital status, employment, immigration status, financial position, family background or health. A man who claims to be a doctor and is a medical representative has lied, but unless money or marriage was obtained because of it the case is weak. A man who claims to be unmarried while having a wife and children, and takes a transfer on that basis, is in a different position.

What does not automatically amount to fraud: breaking off an engagement; refusing to marry after a relationship; a family's refusal to proceed after meeting; a dispute over who paid for the wedding; a consensual relationship that ends badly. These are painful and they are not cheating. Filing a criminal case on these facts usually fails and can expose the complainant to a counter-complaint.

Where the person on the other side is a minor, the position changes entirely and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act 2012 applies alongside the general law. Where the deception involved a false identity created online using another person's photographs or documents, section 66C and section 66D of the IT Act 2000 apply on top of the BNS provisions.

How the fraud actually runs

Stage one: the profile

The profile is engineered for a specific audience. The photograph is either taken from another person's social media or generated. The job is one that explains travel and irregular hours: engineer on an overseas project, merchant navy officer, defence personnel posted in a remote area, doctor in a hospital with night shifts. The family is described but never met. The verification badge, if the platform has one, is treated as proof of honesty by the victim and as a design flaw by the platform.

Communication moves off the platform quickly, usually because the platform is said to be expensive or a relative might see the profile. Once on WhatsApp or Telegram, the platform's moderation and reporting tools no longer see it, and the account can be deleted without leaving a trace.

Stage two: the emergency

This is where money moves. The emergencies are repetitive across cases: a medical bill for a parent, a customs duty on a gift held at an airport, a visa or bond payment, a lost wallet in a foreign city, a business payment stuck because of a bank freeze. Each request is small enough to be plausible and urgent enough to prevent verification. Each payment is followed by a reassurance that it will be repaid at the wedding.

The account to which the money goes is rarely in the name of the person you are speaking to. It belongs to a relative, a friend, a colleague or a company. That is deliberate: it puts one layer between the conversation and the money, and it makes the trail harder to follow.

Stage three: the family

Where the fraud goes as far as a meeting, the family is often assembled for the occasion. People are paid to play parents or siblings. The venue is chosen to look established. Documents are produced: a salary slip, a property paper, a passport copy. Some of these are forged, and forgery is a separate offence that is easier to prove than the deception itself, because a forged document either is or is not genuine.

Stage four: the exit

The exit is engineered to look like the victim's fault. The wedding date is postponed for a reason that requires more money, a demand is made that the victim cannot meet, and the relationship ends with blame. The victim is left with transfers to strangers and no clear address. By the time a complaint is filed, the account is often closed and the profile deleted.

What the law says

The primary offence is cheating under section 318 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita 2023. Section 318(4), cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property, carries up to seven years and a fine. Section 316 covers criminal breach of trust where money was entrusted for a stated purpose, such as a visa deposit, and was used for something else. Section 351 covers criminal intimidation where threats follow the exit, and section 356 covers defamation where the person threatens to publish material about the victim.

Forgery is the second layer. Section 336 covers making a false document and section 340 covers using one. A forged salary slip, a forged property title, a fabricated divorce decree or a fabricated passport copy falls within those sections. Section 338 covers forgery of a valuable security, which applies where the document is one that creates or transfers a right.

Under the IT Act 2000, section 66C covers identity theft, which is the correct charge where the profile used another person's name, photographs or documents. Section 66D covers cheating by personation using a computer resource, punishable with up to three years and a fine up to one lakh rupees. Section 66 covers unauthorised access where an account or device was accessed to obtain the material, and section 67 covers publication or transmission of obscene material where intimate images were used or threatened.

Where intimate images were used to demand money, section 67 of the IT Act 2000 and sections 351 and 308 BNS apply together. Where the person is a minor, POCSO 2012 applies and penalties are substantially higher. Section 66E covers capture or transmission of private images in circumstances violating privacy.

On evidence, section 63 of the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam 2023 governs proof of the chats, emails, call recordings and screenshots. The certificate requirement applies to the complainant's own captures as much as to records obtained from a platform. Section 173 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita 2023 governs the FIR, section 175(3) allows a complaint to the magistrate when the police decline, and sections 35 and 187 deal with arrest and remand.

Two civil routes exist alongside the criminal case. A suit for recovery of the money transfers is available where the recipient is identified. A petition for nullity or divorce on the ground of fraud is available where a marriage actually took place on the strength of the deception; the law on fraud as a ground of nullity is not uniform across personal-law statutes and the position should be checked for the statute that governs the marriage.

Stage by stage: what the victim sees and what to do

The table is not a set of assumptions about every relationship. It describes a pattern that repeats across complaints, and each stage has a verification step that costs little and closes the fraud down early.

What decides the outcome

The first factor is whether the money transfers can be tied to the false representation. A transfer made after a message saying the money is for a hospital bill, where no hospital exists, is a strong case. A transfer described in the chat as a gift or a loan to a fiancé is much harder, because the recipient will say it was voluntary.

The second is whether the identity was genuinely false or merely misleading. A person who used their own name and their own photograph but lied about their salary has lied, but the identity itself is real. A person who used another person's photograph and a different name has committed identity theft under section 66C, which is far easier to establish.

The third is the platform record. Matrimonial platforms hold profile data, login records and, sometimes, chat logs for a limited period. A preservation request sent early is what stops that record from being purged. The fourth is the money trail, which follows the same logic as any cyber fraud: the sooner the beneficiary account is reported, the better the chance of a freeze.

The fifth is the complainant's own conduct. Cases fail where the complainant confronted the person first and gave them time to delete the profile and empty the accounts. Preservation before confrontation is the single most useful habit in these matters.

The sixth is the personal-law question where a marriage took place. Criminal and matrimonial proceedings run on different standards and timelines. A criminal case does not invalidate a marriage, and a matrimonial petition does not produce a conviction. Both may be needed, and the order of filing matters.

Mistakes that damage the case

• Confronting the person before capturing the profile, the chats and the payment records.
• Treating the platform's in-app report as a legal complaint. It may remove the profile and destroy the evidence you needed.
• Sending money to a relative's or a company's account without noting whose account it is. Note the payee name on every transfer.
• Filing a criminal complaint for a broken engagement without a false representation or financial loss. It usually fails and invites a counter-complaint.
• Waiting months to report because of shame. The account trail and the platform records both decay.
• Publishing the person's photographs and details on social media. That can amount to defamation under section 356 BNS and can prejudice your own case.

Where an intimate image was used or threatened, the priority changes from recovery to stopping the harm. Report the same day to 1930 and the cyber crime police station and ask for takedown and number blocking. Our West Bengal cyber crime practice handles these urgent matters, and bail information matters if someone has been arrested in a connected complaint.

When to involve a lawyer

A lawyer is useful at three points: when you need to decide whether the facts support a criminal complaint or only a civil claim, when the police have registered a case against you on a matrimonial complaint and you need to respond to the notice or seek anticipatory bail, and when a marriage took place and the question of nullity or divorce on the ground of fraud has to be assessed under the statute that governs it. The earlier that assessment is made, the fewer irreversible steps are taken. A single consultation before filing is usually worth more than a year of correction afterwards.

Frequently asked questions

Information for general guidance only and not legal advice. Provisions cited follow the Information Technology Act 2000, the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita 2023 and the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita 2023.

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