If you are 20 something looking for love on Tinder/Bumble/OkCupid/Hinge etc. then you’ve probably read about the dating scam.
Story time. Amit (name changed), VP of a startup in Gurugram was looking for a same sex relationship on a dating app. The potential partner chatted him up and asked if he could drop by. The person who did show up looked completely different from his profile pictures, and instead along with an accomplice started to beat up Amit. They threatened him and demanded money and dragged him to a nearby ATM, where they extorted 20 grand and took off.
But hold on. You could be straight as an arrow and here’s the sanitized version of another bizzarro story I ran into while I was tuned into some juicy online traffic. A girl Riya hooks up with guys on Tinder, Bumble, Insta, whatever, and then quickly agrees to meet him at a bar. Riya orders a bottle of wine and a Hookah. The guy gets slapped with a 5-digit bill. He’s forced to pay or gets beaten up. It’s called the Delhi café scam. As per the underground dirt on this, upmarket clubs hire former bar-dancers from Mumbai to match up with dates on such apps, and give them hefty cuts.
Sometimes you don’t even have to be on a dating, matrimonial or social app to find these scammers. In one case a boy in India finds love on PubG, which may or may not be a honey trap. Read on. She was a mother of 4, and sister to an army man from a hostile neighboring country, and very skillfully this house wife crosses multiple borders to get into India. Of course, all countries have an army. But this army has a country, so one worries. Especially for the armed forces, there is an additional threat vector pertaining to national security.
So dear zoomers, it might be dope to go find love online. Because you’d FOMO* out if you’re dating in the outernet. KK. So maybe I’m not exactly nailing all the FOMO-YOLO* talk and zoomer-grammar. But let this one hit home. Getting date-scammed could be the worst thing to happen to you. (Or worse you could have your drink spiked or end up dating a serial killer.) So, one CANNOT be too careful.
Here are a few things to do before you meet a complete online stranger first time IRL***.
- Reverse search their image to find any exact matches that hit up to a different person/name.
- Ask your date for their social media handles to check their true status.
- Also check their contacts, credentials, profile names etc. on a scammer database app like Phishbowl. They may have scammed others before.
I want to share these timeless lyrics from a Dire Straits ballad that rings so true today:
“Well you can fall for chains of silver, you can fall for chains of gold
You can fall for pretty strangers and the promises they hold…
And I dreamed your dream for you, and now your dream is real
How can you look at me as I was just another one of your deals?”
*FOMO – Fear of missing out
**YOLO – You live only once ***IRL – In real life : GenX, Boomer? Come on, keep up