Brescia, Italy: Social Media Meetup Turns Into Robbery and Forced Bank Transfer

A man was forced at knifepoint to hand over cash and make a bank transfer during a meetup with someone he'd gotten to know on social media.

The relationship had built up online, on social media, like so many others do. Messages exchanged, a growing sense of familiarity, then a proposed in-person meetup — this time at an apartment in a building in Verolanuova, in the province of Brescia.

When he arrived, the man didn't find the person he thought he was meeting, but her and an accomplice, armed with a kitchen knife. Under threat, he was forced to hand over the cash he had on him, then make an immediate bank transfer from his phone, before being beaten.

The investigation, still ongoing, is working to piece together the full circumstances of the attack and identify everyone involved.

This kind of trap — where a drawn-out online relationship is used to build enough trust for the victim to agree to a private meetup rather than a public one — stands apart from the faster ambushes built around a simple item sale: here, it's the time invested in the relationship itself that serves as the bait.