Snigdha Poonam, author of ‘Scamlands’, explains how fake dating apps are engineered to exploit loneliness. Young women were hired and paid by the minute to keep conversations going, encouraging men to spend on digital “diamonds” and VIP packages. The apps were designed to target vulnerable users, often in smaller towns, turning the promise of love and companionship into a tightly scripted financial trap. Poonam reveals how emotion, aspiration and isolation became part of a calculated business model – where romance was reduced to a transaction.
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