


Mumbai Dating App Scam Exposed

Mumbai: Dating app scams have become rampant in the country. Thousands of young men and boys are being duped and made to shell out thousands in these scams. We have been exposing such scams since 2 years.
These scams were going on unchecked in two clubs in Mumbai. One at Red Room and another at Godfather Club.
Several victims duped at these two clubs reached out to Deepika Narayan Bhardwaj, Founder, Ekam Nyaay Foundation
All the victims were given strength, community support and courage to report the scam to authorities. We made several victims duped with exactly same Modus Operandi come together, share their experiences and feel safe to express their ordeals
In this form of dating app scam, men are contacted by women through popular dating apps like Tinder, Bumble, Hinge, OkCupid, and others. They are then taken to a specific club by the girls who are part of the gang. Within short span of time in the club, these girls order most expensive liquor, makes excuse of birthday to use fire shots and within half an hour or one hour makes a bill of amounts anywhere from 15K to 85K. Special menu card created with an aim of duping these men does not list certain items that are ordered and many men do not see the menu card and ask the woman only to order out of courtesy. The woman then abruptly leaves citing an emergency leaving the entire bill for the man to pay. If any of the men refused to pay, they were threatened or physically assaulted by the club's bouncers.
Total amount that men who approached our team had lost to the scam became upwards of 10 Lacs
Despite victims filing cyber complaints and even calling police to the scene, the scam continued unabated. The women involved frequently played the "woman card," threatening men with a molestation case allowing them to escape accountability.
After Deepika Narayan Bhardwaj exposed the scam on social media, authorities took notice. First the club Red Room was exposed leading to Mumbai Police registering an FIR against the club by a victim and then The Godfather club was exposed. This time, the expose was done in collaboration with leading media house Mid Day where journalist Samiullah Khan and Shirish Vaktania did a sting operation on several clubs running similar scams. Both Red Room and The Godfather Club were shut down and placed under investigation.
In October 2024, Mumbai police arrested the alleged mastermind of the scam, Ankur Meena. During interrogation, Meena revealed the names of several other clubs in Mumbai, Pune, and Thane that were complicit in the operation.
A total of 7 people who were part of Ankur Meena gang got arrested.