Hyderabad: A 66-year-old Hyderabad based consultant was duped of Rs 3.5 crore in crypto currency investment fraud after being contacted by a fraudster via social media.
The victim, a resident of Kondapur approached the Telangana Cyber Security Bureau and filed a complaint stating that in February 2024, the fraudster contacted him via Facebook and identified herself as Navya.
She persuaded the consultant to join the Catal***M***t*.com, which was later rebranded as pc.omnifxpro.com. Trusting the fraudster, the consultant invested Rs 1.5 crore. However, when he tried to withdraw the profits he was blocked.
The complainant claimed that the fraudster then appeared on social media by the name Kajal Mishra.
Victim duped in the past
In his complaint, the consultant claimed that he was duped in the past by fraudsters posing as women.
In the first case, a fraudster identifying herself as Anushka Sharma from Chandigarh guided him to invest 16 lakh in the same omnifxpro portal and also asked him to take a loan for investment.
In the second incident, the fraudster, posing as Rishika Sharma, who also used another identity, Katha Banerjee, lured him to invest in forexflockltd.com, later renamed forexproltd.com, resulting in the loss of 70 lakh.
The victim alleged that the fraudsters exploited his desperation to recover earlier losses and demanded fresh deposits under the pretext of taxes or clearance fee. Additional funds transferred by him to different bank accounts through sites treasu****6*.com, inve****8.com and m****c.com were also blocked from withdrawal after he refused to pay taxes.
The consultant transferred Rs 3.54 crore to bank accounts provided by fraudsters in all three cases from June 2024 to the present the victim told TGCSB police in his complaint.
Based on the complaint, TGCSB’s head quarters police station registered a case under Section 66-D of the Information Technology Act and Sections 318(4) (cheating) and 319(2) (impersonation) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.
The amount transferred by the victim was routed through a series of bank accounts and wallets. Investigators were analysing the money trail to identify the accused.
