New Delhi: Online dating often comes with its share of ups and downs, where each encounter can be a hit or miss. For some, a seemingly promising date can quickly turn into a nightmare. In a similar incident. When a civil service aspirant swiped right on a dating app he had no idea he was entering a scheme designed to scam men seeking love. What started as a hopeful match quickly turned into a cautionary tale about the unexpected risks of online dating.
The victim, an IAS aspirant, whose name was withheld by the police on Sunday arrived at the Black Mirror Cafe in East Delhi’s Vikas Marg area to celebrate the birthday of Versha, a woman he had recently matched with on Tinder.
At the cafe, they ordered snacks, two cakes, and four shots of a non-alcoholic drink. Everything seemed fine until Versha suddenly left and claimed that there was a “family emergency”. When the man finished his meal and asked for the bill he was shocked to see a total of Rs 1,21,917.70, an outrageous amount for food that should have cost only a few thousand. (Also Read: Snowblind Malware Explained: Know How It Steals Bank Data From Android Devices)
After this, the victim raised objections to the bill but he faced threats, confinement and was forced to pay the huge amount. He eventually transferred the amount online to Akshay Pahwa, one of the cafe’s owners. Pahwa, aged 32, lives in Shahdara, East Delhi, has completed his education up to class 10. (Also Read: TRAI amends rules for new SIM replacement under mobile number portability)
Once he got out of the cafe he immediately reported the incident to the police. Inspector Sanjay Gupta led a four-member team to investigate the case which resulted in Akshay Pahwa’s arrest.
During the investigation, he explained to the police that he along with Ansh Grover and Vansh Patwa own the Black Mirror Cafe. Akshay and Vansh are cousins while Ansh is their friend. The cafe employs several “table managers,” with one named Aryan. These managers are supervised by Digranshu. Aryan, who dropped out in Class 7 is currently unemployed.
It was revealed by Akshay that the real identity of Varsha is Afsaan Parveen, a 25 year old woman who also uses the names Ayesha and Noor. When the police located her, she was at another cafe on a date with a man from Mumbai whom she had connected with on Shaadi.com. Miss. Praveen described their plan to the authorities. Aryan had pretended to be Versha and invited the victim to the cafe and claimed it was to celebrate her birthday.
Miss. Parveen left the victim to deal with a fraudulent bill after staging the family emergency and departing. The scam was carefully planned and involved different individuals who received a share of the money. Miss. Parveen received 15% of the total amount, 45% was divided among the table and cafe managers, and the remaining 40% went to the owners.
Police disclosed that similar schemes are operating in major cities like Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Bangalore, and Hyderabad. They exploit victims through sophisticated collaborations among cafe owners, managers, and accomplices who specifically target men using dating apps.