By Divyanshi Sharma: The cases of online scams are rising in India and even the government had, a couple of days back, asked WhatsApp to block accounts indulging in fraudulent activities. However, these scams aren’t limited to WhatsApp anymore as even in the online dating space, scammers are trying to take advantage and rob people of their hard-earned money. A woman based out of Bengaluru faced something unprecedented when she thought that she had found love on Tinder but ended up losing Rs 4.5 lakh instead.
Bengaluru woman’s Tinder match turns to be a scammer
According to a report in Indian Express, a 37-year-old woman, working for a private firm in Bengaluru, accused her Tinder match of duping her of Rs 4.5 lakh. The woman then approached the police in hopes of recovering her money.
The report states that the woman had met a man named Advik Chopra on dating application Tinder. He had told her that he is working as a medical practitioner in London, UK. Within a month of connecting with the man, the woman told the police that she fell in love with him and started trusting him.
Eventually, Chopra told the woman that he is coming to Bengaluru to see her in person. However, on May 17, the woman got a call from an unknown number. The man at the other end of the call claimed to be an official from the Airports Authority of India and told the woman that Chopra had been caught with unaccounted cash. The man demanded the woman to transfer Rs 68,500 for Chopra to travel to Bengaluru. He also demanded Rs 1.8 lakh as fees and an additional Rs 2.06 lakh as processing charges.
Since the woman wanted her Tinder love interest to travel to Bengaluru to see her, she blindly trusted the man on the phone call and transferred the money. When the man demanded an additional Rs 6 lakh, the woman felt something was going on and questioned the man on the phone.
As the started asking questions, the call ended suddenly and her lover, Chopra, stopped all communication. His Tinder profile was also deleted.
Turns out, Advik Chopra was a fake identity that was adopted by the scammer and the whole airport scenario was staged. The man claiming to be an official from the Airports Authority of India was also a scammer and no official had ever reached out to the woman.
“As I was convinced that Chopra had travelled all the way from London to see me, I was deeply distressed and anxious about the difficulties he was facing. This blinded me from harbouring any doubt about the authenticity of the person requesting money. I simply wanted to ensure Chopra’s smooth exit from the airport so that I could meet him as soon as possible,” the woman told the police as per the Indian Express report.
How to stay safe online
Such incidents teach us that it is extremely important to be safe and cautious even while looking for love on a dating app. It is best to conduct a thorough verification of the person in case things start getting too serious. Further, avoid transferring real money and trusting people before you actually know them well enough.
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