A man who thought he was meeting someone he met on a dating site found himself at knifepoint — and had to send $1,000 to his assailant’s Venmo account, Suffolk County District Attorney Kevin Hayden’s office said on Monday.
That suspected assailant, Joshua Alves, 22, of Taunton, was arraigned on Thursday, Oct. 6, and was charged with masked and armed robbery with a knife in Central Boston Municipal Court, Hayden’s office announced in a statement.
The unidentified man entered a Boston police station on Jan. 29 to report that he was robbed at Cleveland Place in the North End, Hayden’s office said. He arranged to meet after midnight with a woman he met on seeking.com, where he was expected to pay her $400.
He stopped at the Margaret Street meeting area, when two men with ski masks walked up behind him, with one holding a knife, Hayden’s office said. One of the masked men yelled at the man that the woman he spoke with on the dating site was his underage sister.
At first, the men forced the man against a wall and demanded he hand over his money, Hayden’s office said. He gave them $60 but the men said “that’s not good enough.” They searched his pockets, asking him how he would have given the woman $400 if $60 was all he had. Then the man said he planned to pay using the transaction app Venmo.
After that, the men demanded he open his phone and send $1,000 from his account to Alves’ account. When the man gave Boston police screenshots of the transaction and the conversations with the woman, investigators were able to identify Alves, Hayden’s office said.
“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,” Hayden said at the end of his statement.
Judge James Coffey let Alves go on personal recognizance and ordered him to stay away from the victim and the area where the incident happened, Hayden’s office said. Alves is scheduled to return to court on Dec. 4.
