VIZAG police busts Kolkata based fake dating racket, 24 girls among 27 arrested

Visakhapatnam:The Vizag Cyber Crime police busted a Kolkata based fake dating racket that lured people, including Vizagites, into paying money to become part of dating clubs. They arrested 24 girls and three men based in Kolkata.

The accused are suspected of having cheated hundreds of people across the country.

A month ago, cyber police received a complaint from one youngster (Tilak Kumar, name changed), who is an employee at a private firm in Vizag city, stating that he was scammed out of Rs 18 lakh on the guise of dating young girls.

Kumar said that he received SMSs from different unidentified phone numbers, with offers of membership to the clubs for casual dating and sex.

Later, he received a phone call from a girl from Purple Fantasy dating website, who spoke to Kumar in a sweet voice.

The girl offered to arrange hotel rooms, a body massage, and privacy to members and also offered sex with beautiful girls on payment.

Kumar paid a total of Rs 18 lakh at various phases for the membership in the club and also for multiple services from the girls. But, Kumar never heard back from the club and realized that he was cheated and approached the police.

Based on a complaint from Kumar, Inspector of Cyber Crime Police Station, V Gopinath and his team investigated the case. The gang had been operating from Kolkata in West Bengal.

Gopinath and his team with the support of the Kolkata police carried out a raid on Ocelum IT Services Pvt Ltd at Tollygunge Circular Road, from where the gang was operating the racket.

Gopinath said that three persons employed girls to run the racket. The girls trapped some male persons by promising them offers of various services including sex.

The gang sent semi-nude photos of some of the girls to their male costumers to lure them and asked them to deposit money for the services. Police have seized 40 mobile phones and three laptops from the gang.

The accused expected that no one would complain to the police about the racket as it involved the exchange of money for massages and sex. Some other Vizagites were also duped to the tune of Rs 2 to 3 lakh each, the police said.

We are investigating to find out the number of victims involved in this case and also to nab a few more persons in connection with the case, the police added.