Uttarakhand: A businessman has reportedly been swindled out of more than Rs 2.5 crore by a woman who promised substantial returns on cryptocurrency investments. The victim, who operates a clothing business, transferred a total of Rs 2.67 crore. However, when he was unable to withdraw any funds, he understood that he had been deceived. Following this, he filed a complaint, leading the cyber police to open a case and initiate an investigation.
As per the complaint, On January 6, 2025, a woman, with ID name Tanishka Sharma, contacted the victim through Facebook Messenger. After chatting on Messenger, both of them exchanged their WhatsApp mobile numbers where they continued their conversation. The woman claimed that she is from Gomti Nagar in Lucknow and owned a gym equipment manufacturing unit in Dubai, which is run by her father. She said she handles the business while staying in Lucknow. Along with this, she said to the victim that she trades currency on WhatsApp Business Calling API Beta, which fetches her good profit.
The woman convinced the victim into believing that she is earning huge returns from cryptocurrency trading, which she said was managed by her uncle who is Deputy Manager at JP Morgan in the US. She said her uncle has his own analytics team for business and more than 70 employees are engaged for data analysis.
“After 10 days of WhatsApp conversation, the woman sent a link to trade in cryptocurrency and asked the victim to open a trading account and start investing in USDT, a type of cryptocurrency. The woman also gave him a customer care number and asked to contact her on. When the ‘customer care’ asked the victim about the payment method, he agreed to pay via UPI. The victim shared UPI ID and first made a payment of Rs 1 lakh. After this, Rs 10,000 was transferred to his wallet as profit. Encouraged by the returns, he continued to invest bigger amount from time to time,” the complaint mentioned
By March, the victim had put in a total of Rs 2.67 crore. Although it appeared that he was making a profit, he was unable to withdraw any funds from his digital crypto wallet on the platform. When he reached out to customer support, he was informed that he needed to pay a 6% customs duty to access his money. It was at this point that the victim understood he had been scammed and promptly lodged a complaint.
Cyber Crime Control Officer Ankush Mishra said, “This is a clear case of cyber fraud. On the basis of the victim’s complaint, a case was registered against unknown accused person in the Cyber Crime Police Station. Also, we are verifying the accounts used for fraudulent transactions.”
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