Overview

• Abhishek Shukla, an Australian passport holder who posed as “Dr Rohit Oberoi,” was intercepted at Mumbai airport on June 25 and booked for defrauding a Pune woman of ₹3.6 crore via a fake matrimonial profile.
• Cyber investigators have traced Shukla’s messages to over 3,194 women on matrimonial platforms, suggesting a far larger number of potential victims are still unidentified.
• Pune authorities are urging any women who interacted with the fake profile to file complaints as probes continue into cross-border fund transfers and cryptocurrency laundering.
• Separate investigations in Mumbai, Kolkata, Hyderabad and other cities have led to arrests in digital detention extortion schemes, investment frauds and online advertisement scams collectively siphoning crores of rupees.
• Law enforcement units are freezing suspect assets and implementing ‘Zero FIR’ guidelines, alongside calls for matrimonial and social media sites to strengthen identity verification.