Youths posing as woman, cyber crime cop extort money from Chennai youth via dating app scam

CHENNAI: A 24-year-old youth from Vyasarpadi who used an online dating app ended up losing Rs 13,000 after a person claiming to be a cyber crime police official extorted money from him claiming that the woman he chatted with through the app died by suicide. Police have arrested five persons in connection with the scam.

The complainant, Krishnan (name changed) of Vyasarpadi, was using a dating app called 'SayHi' on his phone. According to his complaint, a person identifying herself as a woman named Akila started chatting with him and offered sexual favours for money.

The complainant, who did not respond initially, later sent Rs 500 to Akila's account after frequent messages from her but there were no phone calls between them. After discussing the matter with his friends, he found that there were a lot of fake accounts on the app so he uninstalled it.

In the first week of April, Krishnan received a phone call in which the caller identified himself as a cyber crime police inspector, and told him that Akila had died by suicide. The 'inspector' threatened Krishnan, saying that a FIR would be registered against him and that he had to cough up Rs 70,000 if he wanted to be excluded from the FIR.

Alarmed, Krishnan made an initial payment of Rs 13,000 to the 'inspector's account, but after receiving repeated calls, he learnt that he was being taken for a ride and approached the Vyasarpadi police with a complaint.

A case has been registered under sections 420 (cheating), 507 (criminal intimidation by anonymous communication) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), and section 66 D of the Information Technology Act.

A police team which was probing the complaint found that the calls were made from Pattabiram after which the suspects - Leo Durai (25), Srinivasan (26), Tamilan (25), Riyaz (23), and Prithviraj (28) were arrested. Police suspect them to have cheated at least four others using similar modus operandi.