The victim matched with Versha on Tinder and ended up paying ₹1,21,917.70 after a so-called date-cum-birthday celebration went wrong. (Image: Unsplash)
The scam involved creating fake profiles on dating apps to lure men to the cafe where they were overcharged
A civil-service aspirant was forced to cough up over 1 lakh rupees at an East Delhi cafe as his Tinder date turned out to be a plot to lure in and scam men finding love and companionship. The victim of the scam, who remains unidentified, matched with a woman named Versha on dating app Tinder and was scammed of ₹1,21,917.70 after the date.
The incident happened in Black Mirror Cafe in East Delhi’s Vikas Marg area. The victim was there with his online date, Versha, to celebrate her birthday. It was all going fine until Versha had to leave citing a family emergency.
Soon after Versha left, the victim called for the bill and was shocked to see that he was being charged ₹1,21,917.70 for food and beverages that was barely a few thousand rupees.
The duo had ordered some snacks, two cakes and non-alcoholic drinks.
He disputed the bill but the owners of the cafe threatened him, confined him and forced him to pay. He transferred the money online to one of the cafe owners.
One of the owners, according to broadcaster NDTV who were first to report the development, was named 32-year-old Akshay Pahwa, a resident of Shahdara in East Delhi and has studied till Class 10.
Once he was freed from the clutches of Akshay Pahwa and his henchmen – Ansh Grover, Vansh Pahwa, Aryan and Digranshu – he went straight to the police and filed a case.
Delhi Police’s Inspector Sanjay Gupta led a four-member team and set out to probe the case. He soon brought Akshay Pahwa in his custody.
Modus Operandi
Akshay told cops that the Black Mirror cafe is owned by him, Ansh Grover and Vansh Pahwa.
While he and Vansh were related, Ansh was a friend. They said that they employ “table managers”. Aryan, an unemployed school dropout, was one such table manager. Digranshu, another person named by Akshay, is the manager of these “table managers”.
Versha turned out to be a 25-year-old Afsan Parveen, who uses aliases like Ayesha and Noor as well.
Cops tracked her down as well after they took Akshay Pahwa in custody and found her on a “date” with a man from Mumbai she had met on Shaadi.com in another cafe.
She revealed their modus operandi to the police.
Aryan reached out to the victim posing as Versha. He shared her photo using the one-time view mode feature and invited him to Laxmi Nagar on June 23 to celebrate her birthday.
She pretended to be attending to a family emergency and rushed out. All of this was pre-planned and hours after her exit her date was handed the exorbitant bill.
Divvying The Loot
Several people have become victims of this Tinder date scam schemes in many megacities. People in Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Bangalore and Hyderabad were extorted by scammers, police officials told the broadcaster.
In the civil service aspirant’s case, the woman named Afsan Parveen alias Versha, told the police that each player has a cut. 15% of the money taken from unsuspecting men is given to Ms. Parveen, 45% is divided among the table and cafe managers and the remaining 40% goes to the owners.
These schemes rely on a smooth collaboration between cafe owners, managers, and others who swipe right on the “right” men on dating apps, the NDTV report said.
The “table managers” set up fake profiles on these apps to attract men to the cafes. Once there, the men are overcharged for food and drinks. If they refuse to pay, they are threatened, assaulted, or detained until they comply, cops told the broadcaster.
They further added that they have arrested Parveen and Pahwa, confiscated their phones and the cafe’s register. They said that the investigation is ongoing and efforts are underway to apprehend the other suspects, while adding that other men have not reported such incidents due to social stigma.
