New Delhi:

A civil service aspirant from Delhi, whose date with a woman he met on a dating app ended in a Rs 1.20 lakh bill at a cafe, is just one of the many cases of ‘Tinder scam’ that has become rampant in major cities. Most of these cases go unreported because the victims do not want their families to know they are on a dating app.

Multiple posts on Reddit, some of them a year old, narrate accounts of people who were scammed into paying exorbitant amounts during dates with women they met on dating apps. While NDTV cannot verify the authenticity of each of these apps, they point to a common modus operandi.

How Is The Victim Lured

The victim matches with the woman on a dating app such as Tinder, Bumble, Hinge and OKCupid. She readily shares her WhatsApp number and they get talking. Soon, a date is planned. The woman then insists that they meet at a particular locality and that there are many cafes and pubs there. When the victim asks the name of the cafe for directions, the woman tells him to meet at a particular Metro station and that they can go from there.

At the cafe, the woman places the order. Eager to impress his date, the victim usually does not suspect any foul play. Thereafter, the woman orders something that may not be on the menu. In some case, the woman fakes an emergency and leaves the cafe in a hurry. When the bill comes, the victim realises it is several times of what he had estimated. On protesting, he is threatened by the cafe staff or bouncers. Left with little choice, he pays. Most people do not approach the police because a probe may reveal to his family that he is meeting people via a dating app.

Many Players Involved

In the latest Delhi incident that targeted an IAS aspirant, police have arrested the cafe’s owner Akshay Pahwa and the victim’s ‘date’ Afsan Parveen. Police said this scam thrives on an elaborate mechanism involving several players — cafe owners, managers and women who lure the target.

Each player has a cut: Akshay Pahwa told police that 15 per cent of the bill goes to the woman, 45 per cent is divided between the managers and the remaining 40 per cent to the owners.

In his account, a Reddit user has said his ‘date’ randomly ordered some firecrackers that jacked up the bill to over Rs 40,000.

Got Scammed for 45k on Tinder
byu/FinestGold indelhi

“Some couple was burning anar firecracker indoors… The girl insisted that we should also do it. I said no, maybe 100 times. She still ordered it, burned it. I didn’t participate. After this, I lost my interest and called for the bill. I calculated it in my mind to be 7-10k. If she splits, then okay else, I will pay and just leave. Boy, was I wrong? The bill came at 45k… Those anar firecrackers were of 2k each x15 = 30k,” he has said. Another user said that after he was scammed, he realised that the man on the next table was a victim too.

Not Just Delhi

This scam is in play at major cities, including Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad, police said during its investigation into the Rajouri Garden incident targeting the IAS aspirant. Earlier this month, activist Deepika Narayan Bhardwaj posted on X about a similar racket operating in Hyderabad.

## HYDERABAD DATING SCAM ALERT ##

1 club, different names, daily trapping
3 men scammed by same girl reached out
8 victims in touch, scammed at same club
Trap laid through Tinder, Bumble
Bill amounts of 20-40K@hydcitypolice@TelanganaDGP@TelanganaCOPs@zomatopic.twitter.com/06xtRp6fHO

— Deepika Narayan Bhardwaj (@DeepikaBhardwaj) June 6, 2024

The victims’ accounts revealed that the same club was operating under three different names and the same woman was reaching out to multiple people on dating apps and luring them to the pub. The victim would order multiple shots and the bill would go up to over Rs 20,000. In some cases, it was as high as Rs 40,000. The victims, in most cases, do not file a police complaint or write about it on social media because they want to stay anonymous. The scamsters move to the next target.

Women Targets Too

It’s not just men who are becoming targets on dating apps. Earlier this month, Delhi Police arrested two men for befriending women on dating apps and allegedly robbing them at their homes, PTI has reported.

The police identified the accused as Vijay Kumar Kamal (28) and Rahul (35). The matter came to light on May 31 when a 35-year-old woman filed a complaint that a man, who introduced himself as Jatin on a dating app, robbed her in her house, senior police officer Ankit Singh said. The victim told the police that she and Jatin (Vijay Kumar Kamal) used to talk over messages before he and Rahul visited her house on May 30. They tied her hands, taped her mouth and assaulted her, Singh said. “Both robbed her gold ornaments, mobile phone, and Rs 5,000 cash and fled, the officer said. “With the arrest of the accused, a total of four cases were worked out of Dabri, Dwarka North, south Rohini, and north Rohini of the same nature. Further interrogation is underway to find out other victims, if any.”

New Delhi:

When a civil service aspirant right-swiped on a dating app, he had no idea he was walking into a sinister plot carefully planned to scam men looking for love.

On Sunday, the victim, not named by the police, reached the Black Mirror Cafe in East Delhi’s Vikas Marg area to celebrate the birthday of Versha, a woman he had recently matched with on “Tinder”.

At the cafe, the two ordered some snacks, two cakes, and four shots of a non-alcoholic beverage.

The “date” was going quite well until Versha had to rush out due to a family emergency.

As the man finished the food and called for the check, the bill stunned him – he owed the cafe an obscene Rs 1,21,917.70 for food that should not cost more than a few thousand.

The victim promptly disputed the bill but he was threatened, confined, and forced to pay. The man ended up transferring the amount online to one of the cafe’s owners – 32-year-old Akshay Pahwa. Mr Pahwa is a resident of Shahdara in East Delhi and has studied till Class 10.

Once out of the cafe, he went straight to the cops and filed a case.

The police set out to probe the case and a four-member team led by Inspector Sanjay Gupta was formed. Soon, Mr Pahwa was in the police’s custody.

During the investigation, he told the police that the Black Mirror cafe is owned by him, Ansh Grover, and Vansh Pahwa. Akshay and Vansh are cousins, while Ansh is their friend. The cafe employs several “table managers”, including one man named Aryan; and these “table managers” are managed by one Digranshu, he said. Aryan is a Class 7 dropout and is currently unemployed.

Mr Pahwa also gave up Versha – 25-year-old Afsan Parveen, who also goes by the names Ayesha and Noor. When the cops tracked her down, Ms Parveen was at another cafe on a “date” with a man from Mumbai she had met on Shaadi.com.

Ms Parveen revealed their modus operandi to the police.

Aryan had reached out to the victim and communicated with him posing as Versha. He shared Ms Parveen’s photo in the one-time view mode and invited him to Laxmi Nagar on June 23 to celebrate her birthday.

Once at the cafe, Ms Parveen feigned a family emergency and rushed out as planned and her date was handed the bill.

Each player has a cut: 15% of the amount they charge these unsuspecting men goes to Ms Parveen, 45% is divided between the table and cafe managers, and the remaining 40% to the owners.

Several such schemes are in play in major metro cities, including Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Bangalore, and Hyderabad to extort money from unwitting victims, the police said.

These elaborate plans thrive on a well-oiled collusion mechanism involving cafe owners, managers, and others who right-swipe on the “right” men on the dating apps, they added.

The “table managers” create fake profiles on these apps and lure men to the cafes where they are overcharged for food and drinks, the police said. If they refuse to pay, they are threatened, beaten, or kept in confinement until they comply.

Social stigma often prevents men from reporting such incidents, the police added.

The police arrested Ms Parveen and Mr Pahwa and seized their phones and the cafe’s register. The investigation is in progress and efforts are being made to arrest other accused, the police said.