Man duped by online fraudsters offering escort service

Hameed Ashraf | NT
Bengaluru

Online fraudsters who claim to run prostitution rackets and provide similar services are taking the help of social media apps to con potential “customers”. The Bengaluru police claim that it is a common modus operandi for fraudsters to extort money from people.

A 49-year-old resident in Bengaluru is the latest victim of this crime. He claims to have lost Rs 16 lakh to the fraudsters who had promised him an online escort service. A complaint was filed with the Cybercrime police in Bengaluru South-East division.

The police said that while seeking an online escort service, the complainant came across a link at one of the social media platforms. He further registered to it by entering his personal details and requested for a service, the police said. “The victim claimed to have received a call from a woman who introduced herself to be an executive, and asked him to pay Rs 840 towards registration charges after which the contact numbers of women will be shared to the victim,” police said.

Following this, a contact number was shared to the complainant. However, the unidentified woman asked the complainant to pay more money under the pretext of paying registration fees, getting a medical card, police verification and for booking a room in a hotel.

By the time the complainant could gauge that he was being duped, he had already transferred Rs 16 lakh on the account number provided by the caller, said an officer. Later when the complainant tried to reach them, the caller went incommunicado and the number switched off.

“We have already started scrutinising the call data records of the suspects from which they contacted the complainant, investigation is underway to track the miscreants,” said an officer. There are many fraudulent sites and apps on the internet that claim to provide dating and escort services.

“Despite various awareness campaigns, people fall prey to scamsters who cheat them under the pretext of providing such services,” a police officer from Cyber Economics and Narcotics (CEN) department said.