Woman jailed for cheating Indian on Net

SINGAPORE: A woman was jailed for six months after cheating an Indian national out of $69,575 by luring him via an Internet chat room with fake pictures and promises of marriage, news reports said.

Maliha Ramu, a 36-year-old married Singaporean, pleaded guilty in district court to two charges of cheating. She had befriended Bharani Indran, a 32-year-old US-based software engineer, in September 2004, the Straits Times said.
They started keeping in touch regularly, through online chats, e-mails and phone calls, the court heard.

Calling herself Sanjana Prakesh, Maliha sent Bharani pictures of Indian actress Gayatri Joshi, claiming they were of her. Maliha lied to Bharani on Jan 19, 2005 claiming her mother had recently died and she needed $25,000 for funeral expenses. Her mother had actually died three years earlier. She also used her mother’s death as an excuse to call off the scheduled wedding.

Bharani felt obliged to help her and transferred $15,400 on Feb 8 and another $10,000 on March 4 to an account under the name of Maliha, who the woman said was her sister-in-law.