Cops bust gang that cheated people on dating apps

New delhi: With cybercrime on the rise amid fast-evolving technology, traditional methods of cheating someone by first earning their trust is still maintained but on dating applications. Many fraudsters are now looking to lure unsuspecting targets by first earning their trust on dating applications or social media and then cheating them of their money.

In the latest case, a woman was cheated of Rs 7 lakh by a person who she met on a dating app. Police, during the investigation, arrested the person who turned out to be a foreign national.

Police said that they received a complaint on the CYPAD portal, in which the complainant alleged that she visited a profile of one Dr Vijay Giri in one of the online dating application name Bumble.

"Through this app, they became friends and soon started chatting on Whatsapp. Dr Vijay Giri claimed that he is a US Citizen and based in the UK and wanted to meet her. He also asked her to look for some houses in Delhi and borrowed money," the official said.

After 10 months, she received calls from Giri, who said that he had landed in Mumbai and was stuck with Customs officials for carrying foreign currency and extra luggage and needed money to pay fines and bribes. On his request, she transferred funds into various accounts provided to her. She was cheated to the tune of approximately

Rs 7 lakh.

Police said during the investigation, raids were conducted in the CR Park area from where three Nepalese nationals identified as Prakash Gurung, Paras Mehto and Ankit were detained. Later, based on their tip, one of their associates, Vinay Kumar who used to prepare fake IDs for them in lieu of money was also arrested from the Rajender Nagar.

Further interrogation led to the arrest of an African national identified as Chijioke.

"The initial interrogation has revealed that Chijioke and his brother one Frank Obinna are the kingpins of this gang. Gurung used to bring people from Nepal and open accounts in various banks on their names using fake IDs prepared by Kumar," police said.

They also used to obtain SIM cards on those fake Indian IDs. The kingpin used to give Rs 1 lakh for arranging one fake account holder from Nepal. The ATM and debit cards of the newly opened bank accounts are then given to the kingpin who used these accounts for cheating.