Woman created fake persona on matchmaking website to dupe suitor

A woman with a history of duping men into false promises of marriage to cheat them of their money was back to her antics, posting a photo on a matchmaking platform to ensnare more victims.

Using her relative's photo, Maliha Ramu fooled a 29-year-old Indian national living in Singapore into thinking she would marry him, and over the course of a year, cheated him and his father of $5,750.

Her suitor caught on to the ruse when he found photos on Facebook that looked like the 25-year-old woman Maliha, 51, claimed to be.

On Tuesday (June 14), she was jailed for seven months after pleading guilty to cheating.

The court heard that Maliha, who lives in Singapore and was self-employed at the time, had created the fake profile "Keerthana" on matchmaking platform Tamil Matrimony, where she described herself as a single woman.

Her profile included a contact number.

When her suitor's 62-year-old father contacted her in hopes of finding a partner for his son in November 2018, Maliha told him to call a landline to speak to her "mother".

It was part of her ploy to dupe the man into thinking she was genuinely looking for a partner.

Maliha actually lived alone and her mother died in 2002, Deputy Public Prosecutor Seah Ee Wei said.

When the older man called, Maliha pretended to be Keerthana's mother and during the conversation, gave her approval so his son could contact Keerthana.

The suitor, who was 29 at the time, then began speaking to Maliha over the phone. She told him that she worked as a counsellor at an army base in Australia.

When he requested that they chat over video calls, she said she was not allowed to use a camera phone because of where she purportedly worked.

Maliha sent him pictures, claiming they were of her. They were in fact photos of a younger relative who works in the army.

To win his confidence, she also sent the suitor gifts like headphones and medicine for his father.

Maliha, who was in Singapore the whole time, led him to believe that she would marry him upon her return from Australia in May 2019.

But she kept changing the return date over the next few months, claiming she had new duties overseas. At some point, she said she needed money to help her clients as a counsellor and asked him for help.

He agreed and transferred a total of $4,750 to her over four occasions between December 2018 and October 2019, believing the money was for buying medicine and cover expenses like funeral costs for her clients. 

Maliha also cheated the man's father of $1,000, saying she needed money for her personal expenses. Instead, she used the money to pay off interest for a loan she took from a friend.

Maliha promised the suitor she would pay him back, and on Oct 4, 2019, transferred $2,000 from an ATM in Bukit Panjang Plaza to him.

This made him suspicious.

While digging around, he found a Facebook account belonging to Maliha's relative, and noticed a photo that was similar to the one "Keerthana" had sent him.

The DPP said: "The victim discovered this user was already married, and had posted that someone had impersonated her to cheat people."

He then tracked down Maliha's relative to a shop in Choa Chu Kang her family owns.

They confirmed that Keerthana was a fake profile and that the person in the photo was in fact Maliha's relative, said DPP Seah, who sought a jail term of eight to 10 months.

She noted that Maliha was in 2007 jailed for three years for cheating victims of $225,000 after similarly befriending them and promising to marrying them.

Those who cheat can be jailed for up to 10 years and fined.