Hyderabad: Male escort agencies, which provide male sex workers, and are illegal in themselves, are being used by fraudsters to cheat people.
An NRI, who identified himself as Satish, told this newspaper, that he was duped by a male escort agency that asked him to cough up Rs 50,000 for a job.
“I saw the agency named ‘Club 69’ on the Viva Street website, which has hundreds of such agencies offering male and female escorts, I was asked to pay a deposit to join.
Believing them and attracted by the payments, I deposited up to Rs 50,000,” he said.
“After collecting the deposit, the agency said I will not get clients unless another Rs 30,000 is paid as commission,” he said.
Though there are several such victims, they do not approach the police.
Rajesh (name changed), who works for a male escort agency, says, “Many of us get cheated by female clients. Some of them want us to act out their fantasies, otherwise they threaten to book us in rape cases,” he said.
Some escorts are not paid the promised fee. Some of them are assaulted and harassed by gays, said another male escort.
Asked about the prevelance of such agencies, deputy commissioner of police, Task Force, Limba Reddy told this newspaper, “We are now concentrating on such online prostitution rackets. We have recently arrested some of the people who were running such rackets online.”
Mr Reddy added that there were a number of such online rackets operating across the country. “They are very cautious and take a lot of precautions in their business, still we are looking to unearth such rackets,” he said.
