On a warm night in the first week of May, a 45-year-old married man was scrolling through Tinder when a woman’s profile caught his eye.
Her pictures looked genuine. Her profile was sparse but seemed believable: she was interested in music, travel and meaningful conversations.
The man swiped right. Moments later, they matched.
The two hit it off immediately. For days, they exchanged messages, often late into the night. They spoke about work, family pressures and loneliness.
By the time they agreed to meet on May 10 at an eatery in Janakpuri, the man believed he was meeting someone he had come to know and trust.
What he did not know was that ‘Kriti’ did not exist.
He walked into a carefully planned extortion trap run by an organised gang that, police said, had mastered the art of monetising loneliness using dating platforms.
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Manufacturing trust
Police said the gang operated on emotional grooming.
The six-member group, including two women, created multiple fake profiles on dating platforms such as Tinder and QuackQuack. Then, they identified their targets and started chatting. The objective, police said, was to build familiarity.
Most of the conversations, investigators found, were not even conducted by women. Instead, male members of the gang posed as women online.
Inspector Pawan Kumar explained, “The first interaction would begin online, usually through fake female profiles operated by male members of the gang. They would spend days chatting with targets, gaining their confidence and persuading them to meet in person.”
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The accused discussed family issues, personal struggles and everyday frustrations. Inspector Kumar said there was no rigid script; the men adapted to whatever emotional need the target appeared to have.
By the time meetings were arranged, victims believed they were meeting someone they already knew.
The gang required an actual woman only during the final in-person meeting, DCP Pankaj Kumar said. Police said her role was limited but crucial: meet the target in a public place, establish legitimacy and then persuade him to accompany her to a nearby rented accommodation.
“The woman would only enter the picture during the final stage; on the day of the physical meeting,” added Inspector Pawan. “The gang had only one intention, to make sure the victim agrees to meet — whether in a public place or elsewhere — and extort money.”
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Walking into a trap
Back at the Janakpuri eatery, the 45-year-old man and Kriti were talking when she told him that she had forgotten an important medicine at her home nearby and needed to collect it.
The man initially refused to accompany her, police said, but eventually gave in after she repeatedly insisted that the medicine was essential. She then led him to a nearby rented accommodation.
According to police, minutes after the pair entered the accommodation, three men burst in. One was dressed in a police uniform, the others pretended to be his associates.
They accused the man of sexually exploiting the woman and threatened him with jail time. Before he could process what was happening, he was forced into his vehicle and driven across multiple locations in Delhi and NCR.
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Investigators said the constant movement was deliberately meant to exhaust, intimidate and psychologically break the victim — and to make police tracking more difficult.
At one point, the accused took him outside DDU hospital and spoke about getting his ‘medical examination’ conducted as part of a police procedure. They allegedly took his Aadhaar card and even got medical-related paperwork prepared to make the threat appear authentic.
What made the operation particularly effective, police said, was the extent to which the gang recreated the atmosphere of an actual police investigation.
“It was a well rehearsed show like a real investigation,” Inspector Pawan said. He added that the victim was made to believe that an actual criminal case had been registered against him, would panic instantly, and comply without resistance.
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Only then came the demand for money. The gang then allegedly pressured the man to arrange money immediately in order to ‘settle’ the matter.
Police said the accused eventually took the victim towards Gurgaon and forced him to withdraw cash from ATMs.
The bust
Unbeknownst to the gang, the police were already on their tail.
According to investigators, police had already begun receiving inputs about a possible online dating extortion racket operating in parts of West Delhi. Acting on these inputs, officers laid a trap on May 10 and began tracking the gang’s movements.
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The operation eventually culminated near a jewellery shop in Gurgaon where police intercepted the vehicle in which the accused and the 45-year-old victim were present.
Four men were arrested.
Deepak was apprehended on the spot. The others — Sushil, Neeraj and Vinod — managed to flee initially, police said, but were arrested within the next five to six hours following raids conducted at multiple locations.
During questioning, police said, the men revealed their roles within the operation.
Sushil allegedly posed as a police officer during the extortion scenes. Neeraj would assist in intimidating and handling victims while Deepak and Vinod allegedly operated the fake dating profiles and chatted with men.
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During analysis of the accused persons phones and WhatsApp chats, police found contact details and conversations linked to at least 40 individuals.
Officials said, “The main motive of the gang members was to ensure the victim moves from the dating app to chatting on WhatsApp… The accused did not even speak proper English and made multiple grammatical errors too. So, some people did not end up meeting them, while some still continued chatting.”
Police said such gangs exploit anonymity, loneliness and the promise of companionship to lure victims into extortion schemes. Police officers said the gangs rely less on violence and more on psychological pressure.
“The biggest weapon in these cases is panic,” an officer involved in the investigation said. “Once victims believe they are trapped in a criminal case involving a woman, many become willing to pay immediately just to avoid public humiliation.”
Victims stay silent
The biggest challenge, officers said, is that many victims never report such crimes.
Officers said they contacted around 10 to 12 of the 40 individuals whose conversations they found. Most admitted they had chatted with women and were persuaded to meet, but claimed they never actually went through with the meetings.
Police said most of them looked for a physical relationship, but some just wanted a companion to go out with or talk to.
Many of the men also said they did not want to come forward because of fear, embarrassment and social stigma — particularly in cases involving married men.
The fear of exposure often proved more powerful than the financial loss itself. “Our team has been constantly on calls with several victims but most of them refused to come forward. Some of the victims said they were okay spending a lakh or two rather than approaching the police,” said Inspector Pawan.
The police recounted two cases.
“One of the victims; a sexagenarian who ended up paying the alleged accused, agreed to come forward after multiple attempts. But he had several conditions,” said Inspector Pawan.
An official who spoke to the victim stated that he asked them not to come home or call him for questioning without intimating him. The victim even asked the police to not send a summons or notice on WhatsApp and that the police should first call him before sending him anything as his wife might come to know.
“The second victim was a little over 60, with his children settled out of the city. His wife suffered from medical issues. When we spoke to him, he said he did not have anyone to talk to as his children don’t call much, he did not have anyone to go out with for a meal. So he went on the application and became friends with one of the alleged accused,” the official added.
In his case, police said, all he was looking was for some companionship.
Officials added that the accused men threatened him and asked him to pay up.
“In this case too, the victim was ready to pay up rather than risk exposure. They took his debit card but since it did not have much cash, they forced him to ask someone to transfer and then let him go. They never returned the debit card,” an official said.
For investigators, the challenge now is determining how many people may have been targeted before the gang was intercepted. Police suspect the actual number could be significantly higher.
