Lalitpur, May 11

Police have arrested a man posing as a hydro-power engineer for swindling several women of cash with the promise of marrying them.

DSP Ishwor Karki said Ramesh Prasad Timalisina, 37, of Sindhupalchowk district and currently residing at Ekantakuna targeted unsuspecting women by befriending them on Facebook. He is already married and has two children.

“As per complaints, Timalsina cheated many women, claiming that he was a hydro-power engineer and unmarried, and owned a beautiful bungalow in Kathmandu,” he informed.

Earlier, the Central Investigation Bureau of Nepal Police had warned that accepting strangers not only gives way to the risk of identity theft, but also puts unsuspecting persons at the risk of being cheated.

This warning came in the wake of growing incidents of cheating and criminal activities involving social media.

Facebook is an open platform for all sorts of people, including frauds and criminals, and it cannot identify who is good and who is bad, police said. Women and unemployed youths are more vulnerable to deception. Gullible users many be blackmailed or be persuaded to send money to scammers.

A data maintained by the police said that they handled as many as 35 cases of cybercrime in the fiscal 2014-15 compared to 38 in the fiscal 2015-16.

It has also dealt with more than 250 cases so far this fiscal.