Man held for duping women with promise of trendy clothes

CHENNAI: A man who has been forming WhatsApp groups and offering ladies fashion wear at a cheap rate to members of the group has been arrested in the city for allegedly cheating the customers who paid money online after ordering the clothing.

The arrested has been identified as P Rajendran, 42, of Kalyan Nagar in West Tambaram. Police suspect that he could have cheated more than 100 women after promising them latest fashion dresses.

The case was cracked by the cyber cream cell of Pulianthope after one Indira Prakash lodged a complaint after being cheated by the conman who was the administrator of the particular WhatsApp group. She had informed the police that apart from her, some other members of the group too had paid money online after seeing the images of the dress materials posted in the WhatsApp group.

Once the victims made the payments, the conman either switched his phone off or snapped the connection.

The cyber sleuths managed to track the criminal who confessed to the crime.

According to the police, Rajendran used to browse through the Facebook pages to identify women who have an obsession for the latest designer dresses and collect their phone numbers. These phone numbers are then added to the newly created WhatsApp group. He then goes to latest fashion websites, download pictures of dresses that are in vogue and post them in the WhatsApp group. After that, he would offer those dresses for a lesser price and ask those interested in buying the same to transfer the money to his account.

Once the money is transferred to his account, he would remove the particular member, who had paid, from the group and also block their number, so that she would not be able to reach him. Police seized a mobile phone and six SIM cards from the suspect.