500 women cheated of crores on dating app; Accused used to lure women by posing as doctor and film producer, arrested

The accused used to create a profile on the dating app based on fake identity.

New Delhi. Delhi Police has arrested a 35-year-old man for cheating more than Rs 2 crore from more than 500 women across the country by posing as a doctor, film producer, lawyer, businessman and model through fake profiles on social media. South West Delhi Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Amit Goyal said that a team of the district’s cyber police has arrested the accused Anand Kumar, who is accused of running an organized network of ‘romance scams’, seduction and online blackmail by targeting women through dating and matrimonial platforms.

Police said the accused used to create profiles based on fake identities on various social media platforms as well as dating and matrimonial apps to contact women. He used to present himself as a well-established professional with an influential background and would often pretend to be a doctor, businessman or filmmaker to gain trust and attract victims, the DCP said.

The accused would start conversations with the victims as friends and gradually build emotional relationships with them over days or weeks and after trust was established, he would interact with them on private ‘messaging forums’ which were used through multiple mobile numbers to avoid detection. The accused interacted with multiple victims at the same time, he said. He took advantage of emotional vulnerabilities and created a sense of intimacy to take the victims into his confidence.

used to lure women by luring them

The officer said that after winning the trust of the victims, Kumar would fabricate stories like medical emergency, loss in business, family crisis or financial crisis to extort money from them. In many cases, he would also promise attractive opportunities like marriage or modeling assignments or admission into prestigious institutions to lure the victims. The DCP said that in one case, he allegedly duped a woman of around Rs 7 lakh by creating a fake profile in the name of Vaibhav Arora.

Used to create false story of financial crisis

The officer said that the accused first befriended the woman on a dating app and later promised to marry her. The accused created another fake ID and introduced himself to the woman as Kumar’s friend and claimed that he would help them formalize their relationship. Police said that Kumar fabricated false stories of financial crisis and took money from the victim. When the victim started demanding her money back, he stopped responding to the victim.

Used to threaten to make personal photos viral

An FIR was registered in this matter and investigation was started. A team scrutinized money transactions, bank accounts and technical analysis to trace the accused. The accused was arrested from West Bengal. The investigation also revealed that apart from financial fraud, the accused also allegedly committed extortion by taking advantage of the personal material shared by the victims. During online conversations, he would persuade women to share private photos or videos and threaten to make them public if the women refused to pay.

Created many social media profiles

During interrogation and examination of his devices, police found that he was simultaneously running multiple social media profiles based on fake identities and communicating with victims in multiple states. “Technical analysis has revealed that the accused had targeted more than 500 women and defrauded or extorted nearly Rs 2 crore from them,” the officer said, adding that he was involved in similar cases in Delhi and Ghaziabad also.

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