Cyberabad cops arrest serial cheater from Chittoor who cheated woman of Rs 1.80 crores

Hyderabad: The Cyber Crime Police, Cyberabad, arrested a habitual cybercrime offender cheating women in the name of marriage. The accused used to target divorced women and widows using their details posted on matrimonial websites seeking alliance for marriage.

The accused has been identified as Komineni Vamshi Chowdary alias Kannaiah (38), a resident of Valapalavari Palli Town, Chittoor District, Andhra Pradesh.

Case details

The case came to light after one of Kannaiah’s victims filed a police complaint.

As per the complaint, in 2008, the victim’s husband passed away due to kidney failure. Later, her parents insisted she remarry. She uploaded her details on the Shaadi.com matrimony app, where she connected with Krishna Vamshi, a US resident.

Their communication transitioned from the app to WhatsApp, where Krishna Vamshi, claiming to be a Google employee, enticed her into a fraudulent scheme under the guise of marriage proposal discussions.

Krishna Vamshi communicated to the victim and her family through US cell numbers. To gain their trust, he falsely informed the victim that he was coming to Andhra Pradesh to convince his parents to marry her.

Later, he claimed that his family was against the marriage since she has two children. When the woman suggested they move on, he refused and said he would distance himself from his family to marry her.

Subsequently, he visited her parents and engaged in lengthy discussions with them. Approximately, a week later, he claimed that his family had blocked his accounts, leaving him with no money. He also stated that the IT department had blocked his other accounts, necessitating funds to unfreeze them so that they could marry and move to the USA.

He purportedly misled the woman and manipulated her to give her bank accounts for the transactions. Upon trusting him, the woman handed over her one HDFC, one Kotak Mahindra and two ICICI bank account credentials and debit cards for transactions and also gave her gold and silver ornaments to him.

Throughout the ordeal, Krishna Vamshi manipulated the woman and her family into believing in the legitimacy of the scheme, resulting in substantial financial losses to her. Soon, she realised that Krishna Vamshi deceived her in the name of marriage by luring about Rs 1.80 crores and then ghosting her. Hence, she requested the police to take legal action against Krishna Vamshi.

Accused purchased US numbers to call women

Komineni Vamshi Chowdary alias Krishna Vamshi alias Kannaiah discontinued his degree and has been unemployed since 2009. In 2009, he went to Bangalore and started to work as a glass cutter in a plywood shop.

From 2009 onwards, he engaged in fraudulent activities, deceiving job seekers for financial gain. This ultimately led to a case being registered against him at Koramangala Police Station, Bangalore City, Karnataka State.

By 2015, he developed an addiction to online cricket betting. To fuel his addiction, he registered a profile on Shaadi.com under the name N Vamshi Krishna, indicating his status as divorced. He claimed to be a US resident, working as a Google team lead in New York.

To substantiate this lie, he created a fake Google ID card online and presented it as proof. He created two emails and downloaded the Textme app from the Google Play Store and registered using these email IDs.

He purchased three US phone numbers for Rs 1,610 each and started messaging victims through these numbers to gain their trust. After the woman deposited the amounts, he withdrew the amount on the same day. Similarly, he also deceived people by saying that he knew Indian Customs officials and could get the gold seized by customs at a low price.

He created a fake document resembling Part-VI-Declaration of Indian Customs and affixed fake stamps of the deputy commissioner of Customs, superintendent of Customs and bonds officer which were prepared on his order at Vijayawada on the documents and he spent those funds on lavish trips to Dubai, Malaysia, Singapore, and Bangkok on tourist visas to live a luxurious lifestyle.

The cybercrime police seized from him phones, fake rubber bond stamps and other fake IDs used to cheat people.

Based on the complaint, a case is registered at Cyber Crime Police Station, Cyberabad and further investigation is on.

Public advisory

1. Do not believe online websites blindly.

2. Do not give your bank credentials to any outsider without proper identification.

3. Don’t believe in unknown SMSes/WhatsApp by strangers and don’t click on unknown links.

4. Report the crime to cybercrime website or dial 1930.