A lonely gay man who used dating app Grindr has fallen victim to a scam.
According to mambaonline.com, after losing his spouse, the victim used the dating app to find companionship.
He met a man online and planned to meet for coffee, but was ambushed and robbed on 11 June.
The duo had planned to meet at a coffee shop in Sea Point but the victim was given a new venue in Shortmarket Street.
But when he got there he was ambushed, strangled and forced upstairs where he was tied up with shoelaces and socks, stripped naked and filmed.
The skelms armed with a gun and knife threatened to kill him. When they couldn’t get money from his bank account they forced him to call his sister and they managed to get away with R3000.
Police spokesperson Warrant Officer Joseph Swartbooi says the circumstances surrounding this incident are still under investigation.
Swartbooi explains: “According to reports the complainant, a male aged 45, met an unknown male at an identified premises in Shortmarket Street, Bo Kaap on Tuesday, 11 June 2024.
“They were joined by two unknown armed males who assaulted the complainant and robbed him of an undisclosed amount of cash. The suspects tied the victim and fled the scene.
“The victim managed to untie himself and reported the matter to the police. Cape Town Central police registered a case of robbery with a firearm for further investigation.”
U-Watch Woodstock neighbourhood watch warned residents on their Facebook page and said the skelms might have been caught in Woodstock.
Hawks spokesperson, Warrant Officer Zinzi ,Hani confirms three men aged 33 and 37 were arrested on Friday for the kidnapping of a 50-year-old man on 14 June.
She said by analysing the suspects’ banking information, suspicious transfers were found: “This led the team to tracking the hostage's phone which was active in the Woodstock area.”
She couldn’t confirm whether the trio were the Grindr scammers.
LGBTI rights organisation Triangle Project warned mense to take precaution when searching for love on the net.
Communication officer Ling Sheperd says incidents of this nature are becoming increasingly frequent, targeting members of the LGBTQIA+ community through dating apps like Grindr. She says skelms often exploited people’s fear of being publicly outed.
Sheperd explains: “The recent incident is one among many, with similar cases reported in regions such as Gauteng, Durban, and now Cape Town.
Just last year, four men were arrested in Durban in connection with 13 similar cases, including a tragic murder.”
Sheperd advised mense to meet potential partners in public places, to inform a friend/relative of the meeting, to verify profiles and use reverse image searches to check profile photos.