ARE YOU AWARE OF DELHI'S DATING SCAM?

Some shots of vodka, a few glasses of wine and a chicken tikka platter - how much should that cost in the Capital of India? The amount is in thousands... and trauma, to boot, for men who are falling prey to a new racket in the city

- Manvi Singh

If you, too, frequently use dating apps, turns out your next date could leave you broke and bruised. Over the past few weeks, a number of cases have surfaced online where men across Delhi-NCR recount getting duped and dejected on fake dates. A case in point is Archit Gupta, a journalist who recently posted about his "emotional turmoil" on X, describing the debacle where he had to shell out around ₹16K on the very first date! "I matched with a girl on the Bumble app and she insisted that we meet in person. We met at a lounge and bar in Rajouri Garden. I didn't think much about her choice of place simply out of chivalry, but I guess that's the biggest mistake I made since now I know that some girls have tied up with cafés in Delhi to rob guys of their money by insisting to hang out at these eateries that inflate the bill and threaten that he pay up, using the presence of bouncers," he says.

What's more?

Gupta is just one example! "I was duped of ₹13,588," shares Sounak Mitra, a Noidabased business analyst, adding, "I met a girl on the Tinder app and she asked me to meet her at GTB Nagar Metro Station. After waiting for about 20 minutes, I received a call from her saying she is waiting for me at a café in Hudson Lane. What happened after that is something I would never want to think of again... I believe many other establishments in the same area are a part of this racket where men get conned. I never reported my case because I had no details of the girl."

But Abhinav Jain, a businessman from Harkesh Nagar, went on to report what happened with him: "Ladkiyon ko toh chahiye hi hote hain kharcha karne waale ladke. Har ladki ko pakadne thodi chal denge', is what a police personnel told me."