Dating racket busted; 23 girls, 3 men held
VISAKHAPATNAM: A gang of 23 girls and three men, who were trapping men in the name of online dating websites, were arrested by the Cyber Crime police of Visakhapatnam. After a complaint was filed by a person who was duped of Rs 18 lakh, the Cyber Crime police, who investigated the case, arrested the gang in Kolkata.
According to Cyber Crime cell Sub-Inspector N Ravi Kumar, a complaint was filed by a HSBC employee against a dating website for which he paid Rs18 lakh at various intervals. After a time, he found that it was a fake site and approached the Cyber Crime police.
During investigation, it was found that a call centre by name Ocelum IT Service Limited at Alipore in Kolkata ran an office with girls working on about eight dating websites, through which they cheat men and get money.
“They popularise their sites through Facebook. With three types of membership, they make the person deposit money in installments, attracting them by sending photographs and dupe them. During the investigation, we found the process is underway from Kolkata with the girls trained in talking to men,” the SI said.
Cyber Crime police Inspector Gopinath and his team, who went to Kolkata, inspected the area and arrested 23 girls and three men.
The team seized 46 mobile phones, three laptops, one hard disk and 48 bank accounts. The gang was produced in a Kolkata court and would be brought to Visakhapatnam court.