SMS is used by escort services to entice clients.

CHENNAI: After fully utilizing the internet, “escort” services have now switched to SMS, which is a more open route. Millions of SMS customers have been receiving advertisements from an escort agency about its “services.” It provides the Mumbai-based coordinator’s mobile number. In the area of their choice, interested parties can use dating services. She requested that “Rakhi” call her from a cell phone when she called him at 09891758457 from a landline. She claimed that anyone with a respectable financial standing might join the organization by making a deposit of Rs 10,000. The client is then required to give the coordinator their profile, including information on their age, income, and the location where the service is needed. The customer must also provide their mail id. “You contact me tomorrow and I will give you an account number in the ICICI Bank in your area. Once you remit the amount, give me your mail ID and I will forward you the photographs and contact numbers of women in your area. You can contact them and set up an appointment. Prior to contacting them, we will send your profile to those girls and they will expect your call. Women in the 22-30 age group will be available,” the customer is instructed. She stated that Mumbai and Tamil Nadu offered the services. If you alter your preferred locality to use the services, there is no additional fee and it is irrelevant to us whether you are married or not, she said. She claimed that the client database had been processed and sent to their Santa Cruz and Lokhandwala central offices in Mumbai. You should only refer to me as a source of information going forward; if you do not like any of the women on the list we will send you by email in the near future, let us know, and we will get you a new list, Rakhi stated. The Central Crime Branch’s Anti-Violence Squad and the CBCID’s Anti-Traffic Cell have been monitoring these escort services that offer services via email and mobile phone. According to Jagarbaisali, assistant commissioner of police for the Anti Vice Squad, “We will follow this up also. Sometimes this could also be an attempt at cheating as the people who send Rs 10,000 are likely to lose the money and the agents might never get back to them. If they are providing women in Chennai, we will try to break the network.”