Cyberabad Police warn people of dating frauds

Issues advisory asking them to be cautious

Hyderabad: The variety of honey traps being used by cybercriminals to prey upon men looking for ‘adventures’ has gone up, so has the number of complaints regarding the same. The situation is such that the Cyberabad Police has now issued an advisory asking people to be cautious.

According to Cyberabad Police Commissioner VC Sajjanar, the Cybercrime Police Station, Cyberabad, was receiving complaints from men who were promised meetings or dates with women or female escort services, but ended up losing money instead.

In one case, the complainant had fallen into a trap that began with an SMS. The man got the text message saying a ‘married lady needs meeting& dating. Get 30k per date’ and asking him to call on a few numbers to grab the deal. A woman introducing herself as Preethi responded to the call, and after collecting details, asked him to pay a sum for registration to show the woman he had to meet, and later, more money as ‘safety and security fee’. He was asked to pay through an e-wallet.

The man paid around Rs 35,000, after which he got a call from a man, who said he was the driver to take him to the girl, but for which he would have to pay another Rs 20,000. When he refused, the ‘driver’ threatened to kill him’. Realising he was cheated the man approached the police, who registered a cheating case and are investigating.

Officials said the fraudsters were using different approaches. In some complaints, it was said that ‘dating packages’ were offered with registration to be done via different dating sites. Once the customer pays the amount, ‘agent’ on the other side would vanish.

In another approach, the fraudsters were making video calls from different numbers, and after initial chats to get close, they would record the victim’s video and later use the same to blackmail and threaten them into paying money.

The Cyberabad Police in the advisory urged people to be beware of calls and messages from unknown numbers.

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