Dating apps new way to extort money

Using dating apps like Tinder, Tantan and Mamba, criminals are extorting money from people by ensnaring and abducting them.

Cyber and Special Crime Division of Detective Branch (DB) revealed the information to The Daily Star after conducting drives at different areas of the capital and arresting three people on Wednesday.

The arrestees are Sonia Meher (18), her father Abdul Jalil Howlader (56), and their associate Yousuf Molla (43).

Investigators said Sonia would first target men through the apps and develop a relationship. After some days, she would invite them to a location, where her father Jalil and Yousuf would be present. Once the target reached the location, Jalil and Yousuf would abduct and confine the man to a flat in Jatrabari, and take compromising photos.

The cybercrime division arrested the three, after a victim on December 28 filed a case with

Jatrabari Police Station.

Junaed Alam Sharker, additional deputy commissioner of the division, said around 20 dating apps are used in Bangladesh, and police are getting a number of complaints regarding their misuse.

He said, "For this reason, we have decided to write to Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission to ban use of these apps to stop such crimes in the country."