Mumbai Dating Scam: Man Lands ₹35K Bill After First Date, Restaurant Staff Under Scanner

A 26-year-old Santacruz resident has filed a police complaint accusing a Borivali restaurant’s staff of colluding with a woman he met on a dating app to allegedly con him out of money. The MHB Colony police have registered an FIR and begun an investigation.

As per TOI report, according to the complaint, the man, a manager at a private firm, matched with a 22-year-old woman named Disha on a dating app on April 11. The two exchanged numbers and soon began chatting. The next day, they decided to meet in person at a restaurant in Borivali, as the woman claimed she lived nearby.

The complainant said he reached the restaurant around 6 pm, where the woman was already waiting. They headed upstairs and spent nearly two hours together, during which they ordered liquor, a hookah pot and energy drinks.

However, at the end of their meeting, the man was shocked when the bill arrived, it amounted to ₹35,000. He questioned the bill, saying it was excessively high. At that moment, a man approached him and demanded to know why he was delaying the payment, adding to the pressure on him.

The complainant then called the police. Meanwhile, a restaurant staff member reduced the bill to ₹30,000 and the woman offered to pay half the amount. A QR code was provided, and the man paid ₹15,000. While speaking to the police, the woman claimed she had already paid her share directly to the restaurant.

However, when the man later checked his UPI transaction history, he found that his payment had not gone to the restaurant’s account but to a personal UPI ID. Suspecting that the restaurant staff and the woman were working together to dupe him, he approached the MHB Colony police and lodged a formal complaint.

Police said an FIR has been registered and further probe is underway.