Tens of thousands of people are targeted by ‘romance scams’ every year, their numbers rising during the Covid pandemic as people flocked to the web for relief from isolation due to lockdowns. Ramesh Kumar Swain, who married 27 women from ten different states and defrauded them for money, has been dubbed India’s ‘Tinder Swindler’.
While travelling in a car in Bhubaneswar, the 66-year-old con man was arrested by the Odisha police. The victims didn’t consider his age when considering his government job, even though he looked more than 60 in real life. The swain used the women’s helplessness as an opportunity to set up elaborate traps,’ said Bhubaneswar deputy commissioner Umashankar Dash. Swain, one of Odisha’s most notorious fraudsters, targeted middle-aged, educated, and well-off women who were going through a divorce, or had family problems.
Although he is only five feet two inches tall and only passed Class X, he is accused of defrauding 13 banks in Kerala of Rs 1 crore ($1.3 million) by using forged credit cards. In Hyderabad, he also defrauded parents of Rs 2 crore ($2.7 million) by promising their children seats in MBBS programs. According to the Federal Trade Commission, its Consumer Sentinel Network tracked scams reported in 2021, a record $547 million was stolen in romance scams. Over the previous year, the number increased by more than 80 percent.
The figures culminate in an upward trend that began in the first year of the pandemic. Over the past five years, the FTC reported that people lost $1.3 billion to scams, the most of any fraud category. In fact, it is just the tip of the iceberg, as most scams go unreported. According to Tim McGuinness, founder of the non-profit Society of Citizens Against Relationship Scams (SCARS), scam numbers soared thanks to ‘the isolation, the loneliness, and the ability to communicate virtually exclusively online during the pandemic’.
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