A 32-year-old man from Malakpet lost Rs 6.49 lakh after allegedly falling victim to an online dating and friendship scam.

According to the police, the victim, who was looking for a life partner, clicked on a dating site link and later received a WhatsApp call from a woman who asked him to pay Rs 1,950 as a registration fee.

Later, two other women contacted him and persuaded him to make several payments under the pretext of hotel booking, meeting

confirmation, service tax and account verification.

“Believing their claims, he transferred nearly Rs 6.4 lakh to multiple bank accounts shared by the fraudsters. Realising he had been duped, he lodged a complaint with the cybercrime unit,” said a senior cybercrime official.

Officials said the fraud was part of a larger organised network imper

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