A man was forced to send $1,000 to a masked robber at knifepoint after being set up in Boston's North End this January, prosecutors said Monday, announcing that charges were filed in the case.
Joshua Alves, of Taunton, Massachusetts, was one of two men in ski masks who met the alleged victim, who thought he was meeting a woman he'd spoken with online, on a small street just after midnight Jan. 29, according to the Suffolk County District Attorney's Office.
The man had arranged to meet the woman, whom he'd spoken with on the dating website seeking.com and agreed to pay $400, on Margaret Street, but when arrived, he saw the masked men, prosecutors said. He kept walking, but the men allegedly came up from behind him, one with a knife.
One of the masked men yelled at the alleged victim that the woman he'd been speaking with was his sister, a minor, prosecutors said.
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The masked men forced the other man against the wall and demanded his money, and when he handed over $60, they said it was "not good enough," according to prosecutors. Asked how he would have paid the $400, the alleged victim said he would have used Venmo.
That's when the men made the alleged victim open his phone and transfer $1,000 to another account, prosecutors said, noting that police were able to confirm that Alves received the money after reviewing screenshots of the transaction and the seeking.com conversations.
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Alves, 22, appeared in a Boston court Thursday to face charges of masked and armed robbery, where a judge ordered he be released but stay away from the alleged victim and where the alleged robbery took place. Alves is due back in court Dec. 4; it wasn't immediately clear if he had an attorney who could speak to the charges.
"This is a good example of the caution one should exercise whenever meeting someone for the first time, whether from this dating site or any other site. Technology is continually advancing, and the methods of bad actors are advancing right along with it. This was a very digital-aged crime in that it contained elements of two online entities—a dating site and a Venmo account. I’m grateful there were no injuries and that the victim reported everything to the police," District Attorney Kevin Hayden said in a statement.
Seeking.com bills itself as a "luxury dating site for the beautiful, wealthy, and successful." It has a page with tips for how to date online safely.
