A 62-year-old Navi Mumbai resident has beencheated of Rs 73.72 lakh by a woman he met on a dating app. Man was lured into a fake gold trading scheme, the man invested through a suspicious platform and received no returns. Police have registered an FIR and launched a probe to trace the accused.
Representational Image. File Pic
The dating app scam across Mumbai has been escalating rapidly. Not just the youth who are getting trapped in these scams, but elderly men are now also being duped by the scammers. On July 4, an incident was reported in Navi Mumbai where a 62-year-old resident was allegedly cheated of Rs 73.72 lakh after being lured into gold trading for high returns. The man was lured by a woman whom he met through an online dating application, police said on Monday.
As reported by PTI, the accused woman got in touch with the man, who resides in the New Panvel area, through a dating app between March and May 2024.
Just after a few days of matching with each other on an online application, the two continued chatting on WhatsApp, during which the woman, who identified herself as Zia, lured the man to invest in a gold trading scheme, an official from Khandeshwar police station said, as per PTI.
The woman, while talking to the man, assured the victim of high returns and persuaded him to use a specific trading application for his investments. The Navi Mumbai resident subsequently invested Rs 73.72 lakh over a span of three months, the official said.
However, soon when no returns were credited to his bank, the man grew suspicious about the woman who had been asking him to invest his money through that specific application.
When he tried to enquire about the promised returns and the invested money, the woman stopped responding and eventually became incommunicado, as per the officials.
Soon after he realised that he had been duped very smartly by the woman, he approached the police and filed a complaint.
Following a preliminary inquiry, on July 4, the police registered the case under sections 420 (cheating) and 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code and relevant provisions of the Information Technology Act, the official said.
As reported by PTI, the police and all the other concerned authorities have been working to trace the accused and track digital footprints related to the fraudulent transactions, he added.
With the rising dating app scams in Mumbai and other parts of the country, the police department and cyber cell have requested everyone to stay cautious while using these kinds of mobile applications.
(With PTI Inputs)
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