Right Swipe for Wrong Reasons: Dates Scammed Out of Lakhs at Cafes

NEW DELHI: Afsan Parveen, a 25-year-old woman, spent her days looking for jobs. However, her nights took a sinister turn. She allegedly lured men on dating apps like Tinder and Bumble, took them to obscure cafes, and then vanished. The dates were left with hefty bills for a few drinks and snacks, as the cafe management was part of the scam. Those who resisted were threatened with CCTV footage showing them getting cozy with their date and the fear of police involvement. Some were even confined and beaten before they could leave, both financially and emotionally drained.

Parveen, who operated multiple dating profiles under fake names, is now in jail. She was caught after a civil services aspirant filed an extortion case against his Tinder date, who had taken him to Black Mirror cafe in east Delhi. Parveen was arrested at another cafe while attempting a similar scam with a man from Mumbai. Joint Commissioner Sagar Singh Kalsi stated that Akshay Pahwa, the owner of Black Mirror cafe, was also arrested. “The search is ongoing for other suspects in the case, which is being investigated by Inspector Sanjay Gupta’s team, including ASI Narendra and others,” Kalsi added.

The complainant mentioned that he had been chatting with a woman named Varsha for a few weeks after she swiped right on his Tinder profile. They planned to meet on Monday, which was Varsha’s birthday. Despite having classes, a ‘see once’ picture sent by her made him skip them. She suggested they go to a new cafe on Vikas Marg. At Black Mirror, they had some snacks, cakes, and fruit wine shots, along with a few drinks. Suddenly, Varsha had to leave due to an emergency call from home. The young man was shocked when he received a bill of Rs 1.22 lakh. He was confined and beaten in one of the cozy cabins and forced to pay the bill. Once he got out, he approached the police, who tracked down Varsha and discovered she was actually Afsan Parveen. She was working as a ’table manager,’ a term used for operators of the scam hired by cafe managers. The bill was divided with 15% going to the operator, 45% to the manager, and 40% to the owners.

Investigators found that Black Mirror was owned by two brothers, Akshay and Vansh Pahwa, and their friend Ansh. They had employed Digranshu as the manager. Special CP Ravindra Yadav praised the police team’s efforts. While such scams are now becoming more common in Delhi, they have been a usual tactic for cafe and bar owners in Europe and other places to make extra money by targeting tourists. Websites like Reddit, TripAdvisor, and Google have numerous reviews from users sharing similar experiences at bars, cafes, and restaurants in Switzerland, Hamburg in Germany, St. Petersburg in Russia, Hungary, and other locations. In India, similar cases have also been reported in other metro cities, including Gurgaon and Noida. Last year, a pub in west Delhi was investigated for a similar scam.