Mumbai Cyber Safe: Kalwa man loses ₹14 lakh to bitcoin fraud

Thane: A 32-year-old man from Kalwa lost ₹14 lakh when a woman he befriended on WhatsApp asked him to invest in bitcoin to get more returns on investment. The victim believed the woman and kept giving her money until he realised that he was being cheated.

Rahul Patil received a message from a woman Li Nana recently. After a few days of chatting on Whatsapp, Nana induced Patil to start investing in bitcoin. Initially, she asked Patil to pay ₹9,000 and later demanded ₹40,000. The amount was transferred through a payment link.

Fraudster asked to invest more to gain more profit

The victim was told that there is a loss in the trading account and that if he wants more profit then he should invest more.

As the woman demanded more money, Patil this time transferred ₹1 lakh. After receiving ₹1 lakh the woman showed a profit of 29, 873 dollars. However, the victim was told to pay ₹4 lakh tax to withdraw the profit money.

Patil again transferred ₹4 lakh in order to withdraw the money. However, the account was blocked due to the wrong password. The fraudster told the victim to inform customer care, the fake caller also made Patil pay ₹6,55,000 and no profit money was credited to him.

Realising that he was cheated, Patil lodged a police complaint and a case under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code was registered against the unknown fraudsters.