HYDERABAD: Episode 8 of the Amazon Prime web series ‘Guilty Minds’ holds a mirror to the growing dating app frauds where unsuspecting people get inextricably caught in a web of lies.
The series features three friends connecting with one ‘Keya chick’ on the ‘Alola dating app’ and ending up realising that they had conversations with an automated chatbox named Keya who used the same pickup line for all the three of them that she was drinking wine in a bathtub.
A senior official of the Cybercrime wing, talking to TNIE, stated that many people falling prey to dating app frauds suffer silently fearing their reputation would be tarnished, instead of approaching the police to file a complaint.
“Matrimonial fraud cases are very complex to solve as fraudsters vanish without leaving any trace as they dismantle the apps and erase the conversation with the victims,” he explained.
Some of the dating applications are fake as men create accounts in the name of women, trick unsuspecting people into sharing their nude photos and sleazy conversation. Some apps cease to exist after the fraudsters squeeze money out of the users.
“Kolkata has several fake call centres running these dating applications. They start in one name, advertise and, once installed, a girl with a glib tongue swipes at them. The victim converses with the woman who is actually an automated chat box on the other side. Based on the predictable questions, appropriate answers would already be fed in, including some sweet and steamy phrases and pickup lines. Then starts the charges, in the name of registration after a girl is swiped, or to drop a message for the interested profile, or to open the pictures of the profile and collect amounts in the range of Rs 10,000 - Rs 20,000. The user realises that he is cheated when no meeting with the girl takes place and the application vanishes from the Play Store.”
Victims who lose not a very considerable amount of money, choose to stay mum and fraud goes unreported as they fear for their reputation. This is the main reason that dating app frauds operated by fake call centres are not being reported.