Bad luck is when a match loses interest. A crime is when someone builds a false identity or a false intention, uses it to get money, gifts, property or sexual consent from you, and disappears. The second is what the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 calls cheating, and where the person pretended to be someone they were not, cheating by personation. The police register these when the complaint is framed on the deception rather than on the heartbreak, so that is how to write it.
Which offence fits my facts?
What did the deception get from you?
- Money, gifts or property, on a story that was false: Section 318(4) BNS, cheating that dishonestly induces delivery of property, up to seven years and fine. Because the deception ran through a computer resource, Section 66D of the Information Technology Act, 2000 applies alongside, up to three years and fine up to Rs 1 lakh.
- A false identity throughout, a fake name, profession, family or a stolen photograph: Section 319 BNS, cheating by personation, up to five years. The explanation to Section 319(1) says the offence is committed whether the person personated is real or imaginary, so "no such person exists" is no defence.
- Sexual intercourse on a promise of marriage the person never meant to keep, or by hiding who they were: Section 69 BNS, sexual intercourse by deceitful means or on a promise to marry without any intention of fulfilling it, up to ten years and fine. The explanation says deceitful means include a false promise of employment or promotion and "marrying by suppressing identity".
- Threats to circulate photographs or chats unless you pay: Section 308 BNS, extortion, up to seven years, and Section 351(3) BNS, criminal intimidation, seven years where the threat imputes unchastity to a woman. Our answer on intimate images posted online covers the takedown.
- Forged documents, a fake passport page, salary slip or divorce decree: Section 336(3) BNS, forgery for the purpose of cheating, up to seven years, and Section 336(1) expressly covers a false electronic record.
One illustration in the statute matters for how the police read your complaint. Illustration (g) to Section 318 distinguishes a person who takes money never intending to perform from one who intended to perform and later broke the promise, and says the second "is liable only to a civil action for breach of contract". The investigating officer will ask which yours is. The answer lies in the pattern: the same story told to other matches, the vanishing act timed to the payment, the fake identity, the untraceable number. Put that pattern in the complaint.
Does the matrimonial site have to help?
Yes, within limits, and the limits are written in the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021. Rule 3(1)(b) requires the site to make reasonable efforts to keep users from hosting information that impersonates another person or that deceives the addressee about its origin. Rule 3(2)(a) requires it to publish the name and contact of a Grievance Officer, to acknowledge a complaint within twenty-four hours and resolve it within seven days, and to resolve qualifying removal complaints under the second proviso to Rule 3(2)(a) within thirty-six hours. Rule 3(2)(b) requires reasonable and practicable removal measures within two hours for qualifying electronic impersonation of an individual, including morphed images, after a complaint from or on behalf of that individual. Rule 3(1)(h) requires the site to retain a user's registration information for one hundred and eighty days after the account is cancelled, and Rule 3(1)(j) requires it to hand information to a lawfully authorised government agency within seventy-two hours of an order, which is how the police get the phone number, email, IP address and payment record behind the profile.
Write to the Grievance Officer today, not next week, because the profile will be deleted by the fraudster and the retention clock starts then. Ask the site to preserve the account data and to take the profile down. If it does not act, Rule 3A gives an appeal to the Grievance Appellate Committee within thirty days, and an intermediary that fails to act on actual knowledge loses the safe harbour of Section 79 of the IT Act. The site is not liable for the fraud itself unless it did nothing after being told.
| Step | Rule or section | Time limit |
|---|---|---|
| Site acknowledges your complaint | Rule 3(2)(a), IT Rules 2021 | Twenty-four hours |
| Site removes impersonating profile or images | Rule 3(2)(b) | Twenty-four hours from complaint |
| Site resolves the complaint | Rule 3(2)(a) | Seven days generally, thirty-six hours for the specified removal complaints |
| Site keeps registration data after deletion | Rule 3(1)(h) | One hundred and eighty days |
| Site gives data to the police on a lawful order | Rule 3(1)(j) | Seventy-two hours |
| You report the offence | Section 173(1) BNSS, any station, e-FIR signed within three days | Today |
Can I get my money back?
Three routes, none quick. In the criminal case, ask the investigating officer to move for attachment of the accused's property as proceeds of crime under Section 107 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023, which lets the court order distribution to the persons affected. On the civil side, an agreement induced by fraud is voidable under Section 19 of the Indian Contract Act, 1872, money paid under a mistake or coercion must be repaid under Section 72, and a suit for recovery lies with three years' limitation which, under Section 17 of the Limitation Act, 1963, runs from when you discovered the fraud. The gifts "freely given" argument fails where the giving was procured by the lie. And if money went by bank transfer or UPI, report on 1930 and cybercrime.gov.in the moment you realise, because a hold on the receiving account is the only fast recovery there is. The answer on money that has already moved on explains the release application.
What evidence should I preserve?
- The profile itself: screenshots with the profile ID, URL, photographs and every field, before it disappears
- Full chat exports from the site, WhatsApp and any other app, not selected screenshots
- Call logs, the numbers used, and any voice notes or video calls you can save
- Every payment reference, UTR, UPI handle, gift receipt and courier slip, with your bank statement
- The documents they sent you, and a reverse-image search of their photographs, which often finds the real person
- The phone, unwiped. Section 63 of the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023 requires a certificate for electronic records and the source device makes that straightforward
What I tell clients before they walk into the station
Lead with the lie, not the relationship. A complaint that opens with months of conversation and ends with the money reads to a duty officer as a private dispute. A complaint that opens with "this person used the name X, the photograph of Y and the profession of Z, none of which was true, and obtained Rs so much on these dates" reads as cheating by personation, which it is. Take the printouts, name the sections, and if registration is refused the answer on police refusing an FIR has the ladder. Our post on online impersonation and catfishing covers the same offences from the other direction.