When 23-year-old Soham* swiped right on a guy’s profile earlier this month, he expected to have a good time and bond. Instead, he was cheated of Rs17,500 in a traumatic encounter.For Kharadi resident Rahul*, a date night with a man he’d met on an app cost him Rs89,000, leaving him with a crippling fear of being outed to the family.Dating in India is not easy. Dating as a queer person is even tougher as it is filled with pitfalls. But online dating as a queer person in India is a whole other gamble. The latest hurdle for those who have jumped into this pool is the fear of falling victim to scamsters.Like Soham and Rahul, many closeted gay and bisexual men in the city who opened up to those that they matched with on online dating apps such as Grindr have ended up getting assaulted, abducted or robbed. The police have either not taken any action on their complaints, or worse, laughed them out of the station.“I met this guy on Grindr, and we hit it off. When he asked me to come over to his flat, I was hesitant at first but later decided to go. Things were going well till a group of seven to eight men barged into the house and started making a video of us and blackmailed us,” Soham said.They demanded Rs25,000, and told Soham to call his parents if he did not have the money. “I couldn’t do that, so I borrowed Rs10,000 from a friend after telling him that I had had an accident. The gang then deleted Grindr from my phone and threatened me never to use the app again,” he added. “Worse, I realised during this ordeal that the guy I’d met was a part of the gang.”Soham tried to file an FIR, but the Pimpri police did not accept it. He then approached the Pimpri Chinchwad police commissioner for assistance. However, he is now scared to step out of his home. And when he does muster the courage to do so, he is constantly afraid that those men will return.Rahul, a 26-year-old who was living in Kharadi at the time, matched with a man on Grindr last Sept.“One evening, he picked me up in a car from outside my office in Kharadi. A few metres down the road, three more men entered the car, and we were made to get on the highway. They forced me to record two videos — one defaming a revered figure and another apologising for doing so,” Rahul said.They threatened to tell his family about his sexuality if he did not comply with their demands, which included transferring Rs89,000 to two different accounts. After the transfer, they made Rahul delete his conversations with the man that he had matched with and blocked his account.“They tried to make me get out of the car after this, right on the highway. But I refused to as they’d taken away all my money and I had no way to get home. They transferred some money back, enough to hail a cab, and dropped me closer to the city. I was unable to step out of my house for 10 days,” he said.“When I went to the police, they told me it was my fault. Tired of waiting for an FIR to be filed, I quit my job and returned to my hometown. I don’t think I can continue living in Pune as I’ll always fear running into those men again.” (Names changed)*Different modus operandi, one targetThese are well thought out scams that have existed in the city for nearly two years, said Anil Ukarande, the founder and president of Yutak Trust — an LGBTQ organisation that has been assisting victims.“These groups target men who are either married, closeted or bisexuals, and often, those who hail from other cities. They work in teams and have been doing so for a while now. We have taken such cases to the police in the past as well, but not much has been done till date,” Ukarande told TOI.Police inaction has helped the gangs gain confidence and they have gone on to scam many others, he added. “Peer discussions have paved the way for more awareness and reporting on such issues in the city over the last few months.”Detailing the modus operandi, he said there were four different ways these gangs operate. The first is the riskiest, wherein a man takes his target in cars to secluded places and extorts money with a knife to their throats, or by threatening to reveal their sexual orientation to their families.Another method they use is to record a video saying they caught their target with an underaged child and threaten to release it if the target does not pay up.The third technique is like in Soham’s case, where one of the gang members pretends to be a target as well. The fourth way is similar to the one used in Rahul’s case, where they use defamatory videos against stalwarts to force the victims to pay. Support systems in placeGrindr said it takes its role as a connector for the queer community seriously and works diligently to provide a safe environment.Acknowledging that there were some instances bad actors attempt to misuse its features, potentially putting users at risk, like any other social networking or dating platform, Grindr said it provides guidelines, tips and other resources to help its users.“To support our community, we regularly publish and update a holistic security guide and user safety tips on our website. We strongly encourage users to report any suspicious behaviour and utilise our video calling feature to verify connections before meeting in person,” the communications team at Grindr told TOI in an email response. “In addition, we encourage users to report illegal behaviour within the app or to local authorities. Grindr responds to and cooperates with law enforcement to aid in their investigations of incidents,” the email further stated.The dating app said it was also working in collaboration with MIST LGBTQ Foundation in India, and they have developed a local resources safety page to support users. “Additionally, Grindr has amplified safety messages through the app to keep users informed of safety resources available to them,” it added.Queer people are more vulnerable to such abuse as the laws are not strong enough to safeguard them during such attacks, said Sriram Sridhar, executive director at MIST. “We provide support by reaching out to the local police station and even seeking help of lawyers to file complaints and solve the situation. We are also working closely with Grindr to run safety messages to raise awareness,” he said, and added that his organisation also helps victims in other locations by connecting them to their local community.“Such incidents will stop only when govt implements strong anti-discrimination and anti-violence laws for the LGBTQ+ community,” Sridhar added.What Cops Say I have heard of such cases from Sinhagad and Nanded City neighbourhoods, but not from other areas. I will look into the matter and see why appropriate action was not taken by the officers concerned. We can also establish a centralised team to investigate the cases, if needed. Meanwhile, I would like to urge victims to approach the cyber police with their complaints as well — Amitesh Kumar | Commissioner of Pune Police______________________Complaints of such nature should be registered as long as they meet the requirements of the necessary sections under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita. I will instruct all police stations to do the needful. Anyone visiting the police station should feel comfortable and be treated fairly. I will look into this immediately. I will also see what can be done about sensitising police officers — Sandip Doiphode | Deputy Commissioner of Pimpri Chinchwad Police (crime)________________________SENSITISATION IS THE ONLY SOLUTIONW e have learned that the same offenders are involved in multiple cases. This only goes to show that police are not taking this seriously. If these were any other cases of blackmail, extortion or assault, the offenders would have faced serious consequences. We constantly follow up with the police, but while some victims have got a part of their money back, most are still waiting for justice. Awareness and decriminalisation of Section 377 has given the queer community some confidence to report and talk about such issues. But it is sad that such scams are prevalent throughout the country —Anil Ukarande | Founder & President, Yutak Trust
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