An anticipated date suddenly became a terrifying encounter for a man robbed and coerced into transferring $1,000 from his Venmo account at knife-point, per the NBC Boston.
The unidentified man had arranged to meet a woman he had met on seeking.com, which markets itself as a "luxury dating site for the beautiful, wealthy, and successful." The agreed upon price was $400 for the date, set to occur on Margaret Street in Boston's North End but instead of meeting his date, he was confronted by two masked men-one of whom was armed.
One of the masked men accused the victim of communicating with his underage sister on seeking.com, according to NECN. Upon demanding the victim's money and receiving only $60, they declared that this did not meet their expectations.
Following the revealing, the perpetrators pressured the man to use his mobile device to send $1,000 to a Venmo account. Following this incident, police were able to identify one of the assailants as Joshua Alves, a 22-year-old from Taunton, Massachusetts, based on evidence provided by the victim which included screenshots of the transaction and chat logs from seeking.com, Mass Live further detailed.
When appearing in court, Alves was charged with armed and masked robbery. The judge ordered a release, but enforced a restriction on Alves from visiting the victim or the location of the incident. Alves has a court appointment on December 4th, and it currently is unclear whether he has legal representation to defend the charges against him.
District Attorney Kevin Hayden discussed the serious incident, emphasizing the importance of caution when meeting someone from a dating platform for the first time. Expressing relief that the victim remained unharmed and had swiftly reported the event.
