STRASBOURG, Nov 4 — A French court sentenced a 24-year-old man to an effective one-year prison term today for having swindled more than two dozen women he met via online dating sites.

The man, an Afghan resident in France, used sites such as Tinder to woo women whom he then robbed of their bank cards or details which he used to make online purchases.

Dubbed "Gigolo 2.0” by police in Strasbourg who investigated the case, he also took photographs of the apartments of women who invited him home and advertised them for rent on the internet.

Another modus operandi, according to local media reports, was to rent apartments on a weekly basis via Airbnb, then posing as the owner and renting them out long term to third parties, pocketing the money and vanishing.

The man was sentenced by a court in Strasbourg to two years in prison, one of which was suspended.

He claimed he was trying to amass the funds needed to pay smugglers to bring his family to Europe. — AFP