PUNE: An online romance scam in the form of a dating app landed an 18-year-old standard XII science student from Aundh in deep trouble.He spent almost Rs 3.64 lakh by using his father’s debit card just to get the chance to date an unknown girl through the app. Neither could he go out on a date nor could he get back the lost money.After waiting for nearly three months, the student informed his father about the loss of money. On Sunday, he approached the Chatushrungi police and lodged a complaint against three unidentified callers.The police have registered an offence under sections 419 (cheating by impersonation), 420 (cheating) of the Indian Penal Code and the relevant sections of the Information and Technology Act.Inspector Vaishali Galande of the Chatushrungi police station, who is probing the case, told TOI that the youth’s father is a director of a software company. “Last November, the student downloaded a dating app on his cellphone,” Galande said.On November 17, the student received a call from a person who claimed to be an official from the website.The man told the student that his name was registered on the website and he would soon get the contacts of a girl whom he could date.“The person later told the student that he had to transfer some money as registration charges,” Galande said.The boy had his father’s debit card and the cellphone too. “He transferred the registration charges to a bank account number provided to him. After the amount was credited, the fraudster contacted the student, asking for more money, now as a deposit. He told the student that after he paid up, the contact number of the girl would be sent to him,” she added. The student followed the instructions yet again.After a while, another person contacted him and told him to deposit Rs 1.40 lakh as GST payment. After he paid this amount, the fraudsters’ demand for more money grew. The student then grew suspicious and told them to return his money.The callers told him to transfer more money so that he could get the entire refund. “In five days between November 17 and November 23, 2018, the student had transferred as much as Rs 3.64 lakh to the account,” Galande said.The student’s father claimed that he was not aware of these transactions as he did not have his debit card nor his cellphone with him, the police said .“The student had been constantly pursuing the callers to get his money back for three months. When the callers stopped responding, the student went to his father,” Galande said.The police have began a probe. “We have sought the details of the account from the bank,” Galande said.

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