Following instances of con men cheating women by contacting them through matrimonial websites, some of the websites have said they follow strict guidelines to avoid the misuse of user profiles on their platform.

Tanmay Kanitkar, president of Anurup Vivah Sanstha, a matrimonial website, said on their portal, they call every user on their registered phone number to check if the profile is real. If they aren’t satisfied with the call, the profile is temporarily blocked, he said.

In April last year, the Bombay high court had said matrimonial websites could not be held responsible if some one misuses them. The court had also directed the sites to identify and verify their users.

In June, the government asked the websites and portals to keep a close eye on the content of the profiles to ensure they don’t become dating platforms.

However, Deepa Gokhle, a social activist, held these websites responsible for not checking user profiles properly. Women should keep their family or friends in the loop about the person they are in contact with on these websites, and they should also not visit strangers in an unknown city with valuables, she said.