A man and a woman were arrested last week for allegedly duping young men of ₹500-₹1,000 using a fake account on a dating application, the police said on Sunday.
The man has been identified as Chiranjeevi (29), who is unemployed. He initially refused to reveal the identity of his 19-year-old female accomplice. She was the one who talked to the targets.
However, Chiranjeevi disclosed her identity later. This led to her arrest.
First complaint
The issue came to fore last month after a woman went to Amar Colony police station and alleged that her photo was being used as the display picture by a dating application account without her permission.
“The woman was alerted about the misuse by one of her acquaintances. She contacted the account owner and requested that the photo be pulled down but was allegedly turned down,” said Deputy Commissioner of Police (South-East) Chinmoy Biswal.
The police registered a case and looked for all possible links to the account that would lead to the accused.
The mobile phone number mentioned on the dating app account was the breakthrough the police needed.
“The victims feared social stigma if they approached the police with a complaint. The loss of a relatively small amount like ₹500 and ₹1,000 further discouraged the victims from filing a complaint. The accused have been running the racket for nearly 10 months,” said Mr. Biswal.
Woman was hired
Chiranjeevi had allegedly befriended the accused woman in outer Delhi’s Rohini last year.
“He [Chiranjeevi] needed a woman to make calls to potential targets and convince them to part with their for money. He offered the [accused] woman ₹600 per day for the job,” said an officer.
The accused allegedly used the dating application to send friend requests to men, some of whom were also offered ‘companionship’ by the women at their homes.
The woman would convince the men to pay small amounts of money on one pretext or the other.
