What started when advertisements, Locanto and Skokka are now hotspots for organized prostitution, cyber fraud

Once popular as free advertisements to buy and sell goods, jobs or rental, platforms such as Locanto have been changed to digital backstreates for organized prostitution, sextortion and financial fraud. Skokka, although positioned as a ‘adult classified’, has also become a hunting area for human traffickers and conms, where users are recorded in prostitution packets and sextortion scam.

The police say that fraudsters have armed the anonymity that is offered by such sites, using them as a virtual ‘silk route’ to achieve their goals. Those looking for services that are advertised on these platforms are often cheated, shed or even criminal involved.

In August of this year, the Cyberabad police arrested nine people to run prostitutioning from a luxury hotel in Madhapur. Researchers discovered that women were traded from all over India and abroad, their profiles advertised on Locanto and Skokka before they arranged meetings in city hotels and Oyo rooms. Among the victims were women from West Bengal, Delhi, Haryana, Punjab and Jharkhand, together with two strangers from Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan.

The trend is not isolated. In December 2024, the Hyderabad police fell over a flat in Tarnaka where Ugandan nationals had set up a brothel, re -advertised via Locanto. Only a few months earlier, in August 2024, 17 women-14 from Kenya, two from Uganda and one from Tanzania-Gered from a three-storey building in Kondapur were active where a network in cities was active. The organizer, the police said, had made whole categories at Locanto to present profiles and offer “escort services” to customers in Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad.

“The platform may have lost its shine with real users, but for racketers that deterioration was a chance,” said a high police officer of the Hyderabad police. “It has become fertile soil for prostitution networks and scams, because anonymity is guaranteed until we have a raid. By that time, many more victims have already been caught.”

Researchers say that fraudsters exploit technical loops and international servers to stay ahead of enforcement. “They hide behind masked internet protocol (IP) addresses, servers based abroad, many routed by countries such as Cyprus and others in the VK and VPNs, making it extremely difficult to trace them. This cloak of anonymity gives them confidence to work almost fearless,” for the local police.

“We have written repeatedly to Locanto, but they do not share original names, contact details or locations of their users. What they offer is just an ID that is practically useless. We are then forced to rely on supervision and land information to spot these networks,” said a senior officer of the task force involved in the study.

“Each app can be abused, Locanto is only one example. But because it is not located in India, there is no clarity about how or on what legal grounds we can block or regulate here. That gap should be urgently addressed,” said an official of the Telangana Cyber ​​Security Bureau (TGCSB).

Civil servants warned that the abuse is not limited to only classifications. Matrimonial portals and dating apps have also become hunting areas for fraudsters, who set up fake profiles to lure victims into financial scams or honey traps. “At least 60% of the profiles on these platforms are fake, not -rejected and end in scams,” said an official.

The police say these things point to a deeper challenge. Every time a racket is exposed, the networks appear again under new forms, so that enforcement remains in a constant catch -up game, while responsibility remains a blind spot.

The Hindu Visited for a comment from Locanto and Skokka and the story will be updated as soon as they respond.