BENGALURU: “Can’t believe you could be so ignorant as to fall prey to cybercriminals and lose lakhs despite being a software professional.” With these words, a 32-yearold Bengaluru woman recently walked out of her marriage. She simply couldn’t digest the fact that her husband could be duped by online scamsters not once, but twice.Vivek Kumar (name changed) works as a senior software engineer with the Bengaluru office of a US-based software giant. In early 2019, Kumar, 35, and wife Sruthi (name changed), a bank executive, welcomed their child. Soon, the techie decided to look for greener pastures overseas. He began browsing the internet for a better job so that his family could settle in a foreign land. Unfortunately, what awaited Kumar were cybercrooks, who lured him with a ‘lucrative’ software professional’s post in Dubai and a promise of a home and a car.Kumar was subjected to Skype interviews and tests, which he took believing them to be real. Then came the catch — a huge deposit was sought to secure the job. In June, Kumar transferred Rs 25 lakh in a few instalments, believing he landed the job in Dubai. But within a few weeks he realised he had been conned when the job portal and the links to the advertised position disappeared.Sruthi, who was on maternity leave and nursing her child was unaware of the development. But the fact that Kumar abruptly sold their apartment left her befuddled. Meanwhile, in September 2019, Kumar approached the cybercrime wing of Bengaluru police with a complaint regarding the fraud.While police began a probe, Kumar decided to investigate from his end. He started scouting for hackers, who could lead him to the fraudster, who siphoned off Rs 25 lakh from him. “Kumar found two so-called hackers online, a man and a woman, who assured him help in retrieving the lost amount. Kumar began chatting with them. The duo is believed to have cheated him for months on the pretext of tracking the cybercriminals,” said Bindya Yohannan, counsellor at Parihar family counselling centre at the police commissionerate.The case reached Parihar after Sruthi happened to read her husband’s mushy chat messages with the alleged woman hacker, who identified herself as Monika. “Only when Sruthi learnt about the text messages did Kumar narrate the entire ordeal to her. By then, he had paid another Rs 12 lakh to Monika in his attempt to retrieve the amount he lost initially. Kumar explained to Sruthi that he was flirting with Monika only to be able to solve his own case and there wasn’t anything romantic between them,” added Yohannan, who began counselling the couple two weeks ago after the husband approached police.Despite their best efforts, Sruthi dumped Kumar and walked out with their infant.“We will ask the couple to come for counselling again and do our best to mend their differences. However, this case is particularly difficult as a large amount of money has been lost due to ignorance and there’s lack of communication between the partners,” said Rani Shetty, head of Parihar.