New Delhi: Delhi Police on Sunday claimed to have arrested two cheats who lured unsuspecting people on a dating application by posing as young women, befriending the people and taking money from them.
The arrested accused were identified as 26-year-old Chiranjeev and 19-year-old Poonam (name changed), police said, adding that five mobile phones and 11 SIM cards have been recovered from the duo's possession.
Law enforcement officials claimed that the accused used to take small amounts of money from their victims as they were confident that no one would complain for losing a few thousand rupees, as well as due to the fear of social stigma of having been befooled on a dating app. In this way, the duo managed to rob several hundreds, who avoided approaching the cops.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (South East) Chinmoy Biswal said that one complainant Nidhi (name changed) got to know from one of her friends that her photographs has been uploaded on a mobile dating app called 'Happn'.
The complainant was astonished to hear this and she herself checked on the app and found that her photograph was been uploaded by some unknown person to solicit people for friendship.
"The complainant contacted the alleged persons through WhatsApp and then by mobile call and asked them to delete her photograph. But the alleged persons rather than deleting her photo dared her to do whatever she can, and refused to delete her photo. Thereafter, the complainant filed a complaint," said the DCP.
The victim, in her complaint, said that on the dating app, some unknown person/girl was using her profile picture, which had been taken from her Facebook account and that person was using it for soliciting prospective customers and inviting them through the app for the purpose of friendship/providing girls to them.
The DCP further claimed that during investigation, it came to light that the actual name of the accused was Chiranjeev, who was operating the app on his phone using a forged account and SIM cards procured through fake IDs.
With the help of analysis of different mobiles, the accused Chiranjeev was soon arrested and was subsequently identified by the complainant.
Based on Chiranjeev's revelations, his associate namely Poonam was also nabbed.
Police claimed that during interrogation, Chiranjeev disclosed that he had met Poonam at DC Chowk in Rohini around eight-ten months ago.
Soon, the two became good friends and Chiranjeev asked her to work with him. Chiranjeev told her that she would have to make calls to the victims offering them courtship, for which she would be paid Rs 600 per day.
The two used to meet in a park near DC Chowk, from where they would make calls to their targets and induced them into transferring money through e-wallets
The accused used to befool victims by telling claiming to send them nude pictures, videos and friendship with other women.
On this pretext, the accused would to convince the victims to transferred small amounts, between Rs 500 and 1,000 via e-wallets.