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Chatroom seducer nabbed for fraud

A Singaporean woman was sentenced to six months in jail for luring an Indian engineer in an Internet chatroom with pictures of a young actress, and taking nearly US$45,000 from him with promises of marriage, a report said yesterday.

Maliha Ramu, a 36-year-old ethnic Indian who is already married, was found guilty on Monday by a Singapore court on two charges of cheating Bharani Indran of 68,000 Singapore dollars (US$45,000), the Straits Times reported.

It said she pleaded guilty.

Ramu met Indran, a 32-year-old Indian software engineer based in the US, on a Yahoo chatline in September 2004, the report said. She sent Indran pictures of an Indian movie actress, Gayatri Joshi, pretending the pictures were of her.

Soon Ramu started asking Indran for money and between Nov. 2004 and March 2005 he transferred US$45,000 to her account. But he later became suspicious and informed police.

Ramu's lawyer, Rudy Marican, told the court his client was a charity worker who used the money to help needy people.

The Times said Ramu has returned to Indran more than S$58,000 (US$37,000).

It quoted her Singaporean husband as saying he had no idea what his wife was up to until police came to their house to arrest her.
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