5 SHOCKING cases that reveal the dangers of hooking up through dating apps, websites

1. India's Tinder Swindler

Dating apps and sites are cluttered with a plethora of fake profiles where thousands of scamsters trap innocent individuals under the guise of romance and dupe them. Many cybercriminals often do this through popular social media sites like Instagram or Facebook or dating apps like Tinder. When the world was hit by COVID pandemic, there was a spike in the number of people flocking to the internet to seek some online company during isolation. A man named Ramesh Kumar Swain, who married and defrauded 27 women from 10 different states for money is India's 'Tinder Swindler', named after a documentary on Netflix. In the documentary, a notorious man posed as a wealthy heir and wooed women online, then conned them of millions of dollars. In a similar manner, Swain laid elaborate traps and took advantage of the women’s helplessness. Among one of Odisha's most notorious fraudsters, Swain targeted women that were middle-aged, educated, and well-off but were coping with divorce, or had family issues. The good part of the story? The 66-year-old con man was nabbed by the Odisha police for his wrongdoings while he was travelling in a car in the Indian city of Bhubaneswar.

2. 'Dexter' inspired Aaftab-Shraddha murder case

The gruesome killing of Shraddha Walker who was chopped into pieces is pushing people to reflect on the associated dangers of hooking up through online dating apps. Shraddha, whose body was disposed off after a brutal murder, had met Aaftab Poonawala on an online dating app Bumble in 2019. Both then moved to Delhi from Mumbai. Did Shraddha have the slightest of clue that by subscribing to the dating app she is apparently inching closer to a trap laid by this violent sexual predator who would kill her like an animal? In interrogation, Aaftab admitted that on May 18, after an argument, he strangled Shraddha and dismembered her body into 35 pieces to dispose it off easily without arousing suspicion. He also confessed that after “chopping the body”, he “washed the blood and stuffed the pieces in plastic bags and then kept them in the fridge”. Aaftab even bought a 300-litre fridge in which he kept the severed body parts of Shraddha for almost three weeks before dumping them across the forest area over several days in a 'Dexter' inspired crime. Even after the grisly murder, Aaftab continued to talk to multiple women on dating apps.

3. Woman drugged man, robs him of cash

A woman in Pune lured a man on an appand robbed him of his valuables in the first meeting. She met him via Tinder dating appand then told him that she wants to meet and grab some drinks. When the duo met, the woman offered a cold drink laced with some psychotropic substance to the man. Soon after having the drink, the complainant went unconscious. Taking undue advantage of his condition, the woman stole his gold chain and mobile phone of the man worth Rs 1.10 lakh. The man later lodged a complaint and the woman was booked. Youth across the globe are constantly swiping their screens to find a suitable match. Not all who hook up online hold a bad experience but thousands get trapped, duped to end up bitter.

4. A pseudo-therapist woman targets a man

In a cheating case filed in Karnataka, a woman took money from a man she met on Tinder. She posed as a wellness therapist on an online dating site. The two met on Tinder. One day, the man told the woman that he was stressed. Tapping the iron when it's hot, she told the man about his Instagram page and claimed to be a wellness therapist. Throughout the lockdown imposed due to Covid-19, the man took wellness therapy classes through Instagram. He even paid the woman Rs 3.15 lakh. Later, the man insisted on meeting her but she refused and then blocked him. The man later found that the woman had as many as 15 social media profiles. Hefinally took the matterto court and filed a case against the woman. As per media reports, the Karnataka High Court recently refused to quash the cheating case filed against the woman.

5. Woman raped by man she met online

A 28-year-old woman was allegedly raped at a five-star hotel in the Indian national capital of New Delhi after the two had met on a dating app. A case was registered on June 3 based on the woman's complaint in which she alleged that she was raped by a man at a hotel in Dwarka area of Delhi on May 30. "The woman, who used to work in a shop, alleged that she met the accused through Tinder (dating app)," Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) (Dwarka) M. Harsha Vardhan said, as reported by IANS.

There has been a shift in how people are using the dating apps. People are increasing ghosting, cheating and conning people after contacting them through dating sites and apps, taking advantage of the emotional vulnerabilities. Millions use these apps and fall victims and --- the number is growing. All users should be very discreet and take all due caution while taking things forward on these apps and websites.