Mumbai: In a major cyber fraud case, the manager of a well-known restaurant in Borivali has been arrested along with 21 others for cheating customers by working with a gang of scammers in a dating app scheme. A total of 22 people, including 15 men and 6 women, have been held in connection with the case.
The fraud came to light after a private bank manager filed a complaint at the MHB Colony police station, as reported by the Times of India. He told police that he had matched with a woman on a dating app and later met her at a restaurant in Borivali.
After ordering drinks and hookah, the staff gave him a bill of Rs 35,000 and pressured him to pay. When he called the police helpline (100), the restaurant reduced the bill to Rs 30,000. The woman even offered to pay half. Later, the complainant realised that the Rs 15,000 he paid had gone to a personal UPI account and not to the restaurant.
As per the report, after registering the FIR, police traced the woman to a hotel in Navi Mumbai. Investigations revealed she was part of a gang that had come from Ghaziabad and Delhi 8–10 days earlier and had booked five hotel rooms.
Police found that the male members had created fake female profiles on dating apps and were chatting with potential victims. Once a victim agreed to meet, the woman from the gang would go on the date. During the meeting, other gang members, posing as restaurant staff and bouncers, used a portable printer to produce fake inflated bills.
They then forced the victims to pay up. Half of the collected money went to the restaurant staff. The accused, mostly in their mid-twenties. The Police have seized 27 mobile phones, a portable printer, and a POS machine worth Rs 3.7 lakh, according to a report.
