recharge her phone book tickets or pay fees for coaching swimming or dancing classes sanjay recalls an online survey conducted by kaspersky lab in 2017 found a devilmaycare attitude among online dating users he also lent him amounts like rs 20000rs 30000 initially for tickets and emergency hospital trips but the sums grew soon after meera had started avoiding his calls prompting sanjay to hire a private detective who discovered that meera had extorted money from others in a similar manner confused and hurt 31yearold karthik messaged richard a uk resident who told him that he had to cancel his travel plans because his mother had been diagnosed with cancer and he had no money over a month he had lent rs 22 lakh and yet there was no sign of richard most of the victims are women dating apps and social networks have become a hunting ground for con artists as an increasing number of indians log in for hookups romance and if luck holds true love use a digital identity app to ensure the person and profile is genuine dont part with a dime con banega crorepati afraid sanjay decided to break all contact but its stuck at the airport and tempt him or her to pay custom duties if profile descriptions read too smooth then you need to worry as well within six months meera had proposed marriage a move that 31yearold sanjay calls a masterstroke as it made him emotionally invested in the relationship that started in 2014the two would meet on weekends or whenever sanjay visited delhi for work dushyant a smalltime contractor from jaipur pretended to be a delhibased crorepati on tinder once meera asked for rs 5 lakh to pay for a cousins heart treatment asking him to split up the deposit into multiple accounts to avoid being scolded by her father suspicious sanjay began questioning her it seemed a minor hiccup the 32country survey assessed 21081 users including india his ruse backfired when 27yearold puja seth who was working with a gang that blackmailed men with fake rape cases decided he would make the perfect target around this time she also started asking him for money using fake profiles scammers troll for the lonely and the vulnerable police say nigerian conmen always looking for newer and more inventive ways to scam people are quite actively running the sweetheart swindle truly madly cofounder rahul kumar says they use several verification mechanisms to keep fake profiles to a minimum one in ten had shared their address work or personal family details and even intimate photos of themselves publicly exposing themselves to being targeted the two started chatting online and soon hit it off they promise love and marriage and build what feels like a very real relationship to the victim meera also told him that her father was very strict and wanted to get her married at a young age when i look back i realise that i was an emotional fool dating websites