Dating website threatens BA student with solicitation case, ‘extorts’ ₹1.24L

According to the police, the victim, a resident of Farrukhnagar, had signed up for the website’s services in May this year after he received a phone call from a woman, claiming to be an employee of the website.

A final year BA student was allegedly duped of ₹1.24 lakh after he signed up for a dating website. According to the police, the victim alleged that people running the service extorted money from him after threatening to file a police case against him.

A police officer privy to the investigation, requesting anonymity, said there were certain contradictions in the complaint and the police was verifying these allegations. (HT image)

According to the police, the victim, a resident of Farrukhnagar, had signed up for the website’s services in May this year after he received a phone call from a woman, claiming to be an employee of the website.

The victim, requesting anonymity, said that initially he paid ₹1,600 for registration. “They shared phone numbers of women and told me that I would be paid ₹25,000 for going on potential dates with women who would show an interest. A few months later, they asked me to pay more money for keeping my identity a secret and threatened to deactivate my account,” he said, adding that he did not meet any woman through the website.

He added that in the next three months, he paid ₹1,24,780 in many small instalments to the accused persons after they kept threatening to file a fake case of solicitation against him.

A police officer privy to the investigation, requesting anonymity, said there were certain contradictions in the complaint and the police was verifying these allegations.

“On the basis of the complaint, we have registered a case against unknown persons. Some of the phone number, from which the victim got calls, are registered in West Bengal. We are trying to trace the accused persons,” the officer said.

The complainant had filed the complaint at the Economic Offences Wing, which was later marked to Farrukhnagar police station. A case was registered under sections 406 (criminal breach of trust), 420 (cheating) and 120 B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code on Tuesday.