Everyone has a horror story about online dating, or Tinder if you know how to operate a smartphone, but chances are yours aren’t as bad as these Pretoria shockers below.

Unless you’re the girl I know who had to drive to Blouberg for a date with a guy who racially abused the barman, spoke about his love for meth, badmouthed his own mother and then ‘went to the toilet’ and stuck her with the bill.

OK, even that isn’t as bad as what’s going down in Sunnyside. Check it, via Times LIVE:

According to police‚ the criminals use women to pose as prostitutes or as people looking for lovers on dating sites to lure potential victims to the suburb where they are then robbed.

Police have confirmed that several cases of robbery under similar circumstances have been reported to the local police station

A 21-year-old woman believed to be part of the blind date robbery syndicate appeared briefly in the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday.

The suspect, Boitumelo Sekgwelea, was granted R1 500 bail and the case postponed until August 22.

Two dates that didn’t exactly go according to plan:

…in March‚ a 54-year-old Sandton man was robbed of R190‚000 after he was lured by a woman he had met on a dating website. The victim was accosted by three men while sitting in the woman’s flat and accused of sleeping with the wife of one of the men. He was threatened to hand over his bank card and PIN code to the three men‚ who then went on a shopping spree amounting to R190‚000 with his bank card while he was kept in the flat.

In yet another incident‚ also in March‚ Nigerian national‚ Clement Onyeica Oghonim‚ 27‚ was arrested and charged with assault with intent to cause grievous bodily harm‚ kidnapping‚ extortion and robbery with aggravating circumstances.

The victim was a 21-year-old man who had been lured by a woman he met on social media and set up a blind date at the McDonald’s in Sunnyside. The duo were sitting in the victim’s car when three men pounced‚ demanding money and bank cards from him but he had none. The victim’s brother was then called to pay a ransom amount to the suspects for the safe return the victim. On arrival in Sunnyside‚ the victim’s brother alerted police patrolling the area and Oghonim was caught trying to flee.

Note to self – don’t agree to meet anyone for a cup of coffee in Sunnyside, an area notorious for crime‚ drug peddling and prostitution.

Good luck – it’s a jungle out there.

[source:timeslive]