How to spot a fake profile on a matrimony site

Most profiles are real, and the fake ones follow a pattern

Most people you meet on a matrimony site are who they say they are. The fake profiles are built to look like the best match on the page, and they follow a pattern the Home Ministry's cybercrime centre, I4C, has described.

As reported in November 2025, its analysis found fraudsters using stolen or edited photos and invented details, presenting themselves as working abroad, in the armed forces or at well-known companies, and using age and income filters to find people who are financially comfortable. They build closeness over calls and WhatsApp, then create an urgent or emotional reason to ask for money.

Signs a profile may be fake

• They live abroad or are posted somewhere remote, and a visit is always about to happen.
• They avoid a live video call or a meeting, or the person on video does not quite match the photos.
• They want to move from the site to WhatsApp or phone calls within days.
• They are vague about their family or workplace, or the details change when you ask again.
• They speak of love and marriage very quickly, or ask you to delete your profile.
• A gift is on its way, and customs, tax or an airport fee must be paid before it is released.
• A sudden emergency, a frozen account, or an investment or crypto opportunity they want you in on.

What the customs story looks like

In August 2025, The Tribune reported that a 35-year-old woman in Ludhiana district paid about ₹79 lakh as customs duty on gifts promised by a man who said he lived in England. He had answered her newspaper matrimonial ad. The gifts never arrived.

Checks your family can do

• Meet in person, with family, before any commitment. A government advisory on matrimonial fraud stresses meeting the match's parents or relatives face to face, especially for NRI profiles.
• Search the profile photos with a reverse image search to see whether they appear elsewhere under another name. I4C suggests this.
• Check the job, hospital, college or company yourself, using contact details you find, not ones the match gives you.
• Talk to their family directly, and notice if every relative can only be reached through numbers the match supplies.
• Keep money out of it. Do not send fees, gifts, loans or investments to anyone you have not met, whatever the reason.
• Keep the early conversations on the site, where you can report and block.

Signs of a fake profile and signs of a real match

How to report a profile to the site

On Shaadi.com, open the profile, tap the arrow at the top right and choose Report Profile/Photo. Its help page says reporting also blocks the member for you, and lists fake or misleading profiles and wrong photos among the reasons to report.

BharatMatrimony, Jeevansathi and other sites have their own report options on the profile or in their help pages. Include the profile ID and screenshots of the profile and the chat.

If it already happened

1. Stop sending money, even if they say what you have already paid will be lost.
2. Report the profile on the site with screenshots of the profile, the chat and any payment details.
3. Call your bank about any transfer you made and ask whether it can be stopped.
4. Keep the chats, call logs, phone numbers and account numbers they gave you. The police will need them.
5. If they threaten to share private photos or messages, do not pay, and read what to do about sextortion.

• Call 1930The national cyber fraud helpline. Call within hours if money left your account.
• cybercrime.gov.inFile a complaint online and keep the acknowledgement number.
• Chakshu on Sanchar SaathiReport a fraud call, SMS or WhatsApp number.

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