Dating app scam arrives in Mumbai

Deepika Narayan Bhardwaj, documentary filmmaker and men’s rights activist

After Delhi and Hyderabad, a dating scam active in Mumbai has come to light. According to sources, women befriend men and take them to specific pubs and bar restaurants, forcing them to pay for expensive food and drinks. When it is time to pay the bill, the women leave on some pretext. The pub staff then forcibly collect payment from the men and beat them if they refuse to pay. The victims are only allowed to leave after paying up, and they sometimes have to borrow from friends and relatives.

Three Mumbai-based men have been victims of this. These men allegedly befriended three different women on various dating sites, and the women took them to a pub in Andheri. After placing orders, they drank costly wine and liquor, ate food, and when the time came to pay the bill, the women made various excuses and left.

The incident came to light when these victims approached Deepika Narayan Bhardwaj, a documentary filmmaker and men's rights activist, for help. Bhardwaj tweeted about the matter, bringing it to the attention of the Mumbai police. mid-day contacted the three victims, one of whom was allegedly severely beaten by the staff of the Andheri-based, The Red Room pub for not being able to pay the bill.

The scammed!

A 32-year-old victim, speaking to mid-day, said, "I matched with a woman on Tinder. On the same day, she asked me to meet near Infinity Mall. Upon reaching, she called and took me to The Red Room. She did not look like the woman whose picture I had seen on the dating app. She kept ordering food and alcohol shots. When the bill came, I shouted at her for ordering expensive shots and food. She then said she would be back from the washroom but never returned. The bill amounted to Rs 8,800. I negotiated with the staff and paid R8,000." The man got suspicious when the woman was continuously placing orders.

The screenshot of the email message of the victim tweeted by activist Deepika Bhardwaj

"She was placing order after order. At first, I thought we would share the bill, but I later got suspicious. My suspicion turned into certainty when I saw that the Tinder profile image and the girl sitting in front of me were different. I told her we would have to share the bill. But before that, she ran to the washroom. After a few days, I stood outside The Red Room and The AMPH Mumbai pubs and saw some women outside trying to lure customers. I warned one of the men about the scam and he left. I have now realised that this was a dating app scam, and customers are being duped here."

Another victim told mid-day, "I met a girl named Tanvi on a dating site on May 20. During the chat, she told me she was from Delhi and had come to Mumbai for a job interview and was living with her relative in Mumbai. She asked me to meet her near Infinity Mall, Oshiwara. After the meeting, she took me to The Red Room." What followed at the pub was an experience similar to the previous victim.

"She ordered hookah, a couple of starters, a gin and tonic for me, and a Jager bomb for herself. By the time I had halfway through my first drink, she had finished four. She ordered a few more drinks for herself and another drink for me. Soon the bill came, and I was shocked to see it being a whopping R24,000. When I said that I didn't have that kind of money, she said she would go out and call her friends to arrange some money and disappeared. When I told the waiters that I didn't have enough money to pay the bill, they started beating me up. Luckily, I got up quickly and left the pub via the main door. An older manager followed me outside, and I settled the bill by paying Rs 14,000 from my side and borrowing Rs 6,000 from my uncle, a judge. The Mumbai police called me on Friday to record my statement."

A third victim said, "The girl I met also suggested The Red Room. We went there and had Jager shots, sheesha, Red Bulls, pyros, etc. The waiters came and told me, sir are you going to sit as your bill is over Rs 35,000, I was shocked to hear this. She suggested we leave and go to the beach or something. I was already pissed off by then but kept my calm and told her, ‘Abhi itna kharcha hua hai, toh let's sit for some more time." The woman gave a few more orders and left for the washroom. She didn't return. "When the bill arrived, it was for Rs 43,000. I realised I had been scammed and had no other option but to pay up." The next day this victim checked about Red Room Pub on the Internet and found out that many people have become victims of this type of fraud. I have spoken to my lawyer in this regard and I am preparing to take legal action, he said.

Activist speaks

"Dating app scams are becoming rampant in India. While in most cases it's financial fraud, there are also cases where victims were violently attacked. Dating apps are taking no responsibility for listing such criminals on their sites. I have exposed such scams in Delhi, Indore, Hyderabad and now in Mumbai. In Hyderabad, police acted swiftly and arrested seven people. I have been contacted by the office of DCP Bandra after this expose and I hope they will take stringent action against The Red Room owners and all such clubs defrauding people in Mumbai," said Bhardwaj, the documentary filmmaker and men's rights activist presented a hefty bill, claim victims, activist.

The pub says

When mid-day sought comment from the pub, Hema Chowdhary, one of the partners of the AMPH and the Red Room pub, said, "The menu of my pub is expensive, for which we pay tax to the government. The price of every item is listed on the menu. Apart from the internal staff, PR teams also work for the pub, they bring in customers and take a commission on the bill. Allegations that girls from dating sites and pubs collude to dupe customers are baseless and false. The allegation of beating up a customer is false."

Rs 43,000
Bill amount one of the victims paid at a pub