Indian Man aged 65 loses £50,000 on Fraud Dating Website

An Indian man, aged 65, from Mumbai, lost £50,000 (Rs. 46 Lakh), after being scammed on a dating website.

The victim, who is married, lost all his savings and post-retirement funds when he registered himself on the site to date women for a year.

The man first came across the dating website in May 2018 but did not talk about the incident until March 2019 as he was too embarrassed.

He had retired from his job with a private firm and came across an internet link which said: “Looking for a date?”

He clicked the link and registered himself on the dating website.

The incident came to light after the victim’s family urged him to file an FIR at the Kurar police station in Mumbai. He explained the ordeal to officers.

After creating an account on site, the man received a phone call from a woman called Meera. She asked him to pay a registration fee so he could enrol as a premium member.

When he registered, the victim was shown photos of three women he could date.

After selecting one of the women, he was asked to pay Rs. 10 Lakh (£11,000) to date her for one year. According to Meera, the dating package included video calls and private meetings.

Police officers stated that Meera continued to ask for more payments from the victim under different pretexts such as insurance and police verification.

The victim was unaware that he was being scammed and continued to pay the requested ‘fees’.

After transferring a total of Rs. 30 Lakh (£33,000), Meera gave him the number of the woman he had chosen to date. The woman identified herself as Rozi Agarwal.

Rozi also requested payments for a number of reasons. The man continued to make payments without suspecting any fraudulent activity.

The victim grew suspicious after paying a huge sum of money and having no dates. He began to research the dating website.

He found out it was a fraudulent site when he saw reviews from previous victims.

After realising he had been conned, the man phoned Meera and asked her to cancel his membership. Meera obliged and said she would refund the total amount of Rs. 46 Lakh (£50,000) by January 2019.

However, the man did not receive the money and Meera’s phone was not reachable following her promise to refund the victim.

The man did not tell his family until March 2019 when his family took him to the police to file a complaint.

Police officers registered a case and are searching for those involved in the scam and running the fraudulent dating website.