Smartphone apps used to lure victims

ST. LOUIS COUNTY, Mo. – A night in July began with a call about a dating app used in a suspected robbery.

Bodycam video from the North County Police Cooperative showed a victim being struck in the head with a gun as he arrived at a location where he thought he was encountering a woman.

You can hear an officer saying: “They took his phone, his keys, his wallet and his cash and forced him to cash in some money.”

Then the police realize the crime may be continuing when an officer notices someone else being called to the scene – using a different smartphone app.

“Who do you want to pick up?” You can hear an officer asking a rideshare driver.

That driver gave the same address where the dating app victim showed up. Police then noticed another rideshare driver also pulled up to the address in question.

“There’s an Uber there,” an officer said. “Go follow this Uber because they have a Lyft going to the same address this Uber went to.”

It was on Ravenwood Avenue in the Pine Lawn neighborhood where three innocent people were summoned to the streets using three different smartphone applications. It’s unclear whether the rideshare drivers would become additional robbery victims – or whether one of them was intended to be an unwitting getaway driver for the criminals.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol releases a report of a wrong-way accident on I-44

“There was a group of three suspects posing as women on a dating app,” said NCPC Cpl. said Benjamin Santoyo.

Santoyo said he recalled eight recent cases in which victims were left on the street, some empty.

“They take their keys; They take their phones with them,” he said. “Now they don’t have the option to contact the police directly and they also take their car and then go a step further just in case some of these people are stripped naked.”

Police believe there may be many unreported cases, including those involving people being lured into sex trafficking.

These are cases that Cindy Mallot from Crisis Aid International sees. She told us: “Often it’s a tool to build that false sense of familiarity that is common with many traffickers.”

Crisis Aid International has offices in many local police departments to assist victims of human trafficking and exploitation.

“If someone does this to you, they’re probably doing it to other people,” Mallot said. “You could really help protect someone who really needs it, so please consider coming forward.”

From young girls to grown men, almost anyone can become a target for people who hide behind computer screens and tell stories that serve only themselves.

For more information about human trafficking or online safety tips, visit www.ussafe.org

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