Ludhiana: A ‘dating scam’, which is being reported in metro cities in which people meet through dating apps and end up losing thousands of bucks to fancy restaurants under a planned conspiracy, has reached Ludhiana.
In this scam, the men are coerced into paying huge bills at the restaurants and hotels that vary from Rs 20,000 to Rs 60,000.
In the Ludhiana case, a city-based businessman came in contact with a woman, who claimed to be from Delhi, on Tinder.
The woman told the man that she, along with her mother, had come to Ludhiana to visit their relatives and offered to meet him.
While speaking with TOI, the city resident said, “I agreed to meet the woman. She said that her mother wanted to do some shopping at a shopping mall on Ferozepur Road so they could meet at a restaurant there.”
“We decided the time for the meeting. I reached outside the mall and gave a call to the woman asking her whereabouts. She said that she was standing outside a hotel located near the shopping mall and asked me to come there. I went ahead and reached that hotel. The woman insisted that we should go to the hotel to have drinks at its bar, so I agreed,” the city resident said.
He said, “We both went to the bar of the hotel where the woman first ordered 12 shots and then eight more. We sat there for a while and meanwhile, the hotel staffer informed us that they have the facility of bursting firecrackers in the hotel to celebrate the festivals.”
“The woman asked him to bring the firecrackers which she used there. Minutes later, when we decided to go back, I asked for the bill and was shocked as it said Rs 59,000. The hotel had charged Rs 24,000 for four firecrackers and the rest of the amount was for 20 shots. Everything was highly overpriced and I refused to make the payment and asked them to justify the bill. At that moment I had realised that it was a trap as initially we had decided to meet at a café. However, the woman took me to this particular hotel,” the businessman said.
The man called some of his “influential friends” who further talked to the hotel owners.
They found that the hotel owner had given the hotel on lease to someone.
However, after the intervention of more people, the man was asked to pay Rs 22,000. “I paid Rs 22,000 there and went out. Thereafter, the woman also disappeared and became unapproachable. This is a dating scam that leads to the financial loss and humiliation that people must be aware of,” the victim said. Inspector Jatinder Singh, SHO at Cyber Crime police station, said, “In metro cities like Delhi and Mumbai, such cases have been reported. The women available on these apps, in connivance with the owners of café, restaurants and bars, have taken rich businessmen there and made them pay large bills.”