A 44-year-old senior executive of a private firm was allegedly duped by an unidentified woman on the pretext of investing in cryptocurrency in October this year, police said on Sunday.
The victim met the woman on a social networking site. After befriending him and gaining his confidence, the woman asked him to invest in a cryptocurrency exchange platform, police added.
The victim alleged in his complaint that she made him register on a crypto trading website on October 28, and on her suggestion, he invested ₹45 lakh. The suspect used to allegedly share information regarding investments.
Police said that the victim earned huge profits after a month and his account balance soared to ₹1.30 crore, following which he tried to withdraw the money, but was asked to invest ₹25 lakh more, else there will be a 30% deduction from his account. The victim became suspicious and reported the matter to police.
“I had invested ₹45 lakh and when my amount had reached ₹1.30 crore, I tried withdrawing the money but the website restricted me. It mentioned that I must deposit ₹25 lakh first to withdraw the entire amount. This was quite alarming and when I checked the site carefully, I noticed that it was a copy of a well-known Korean cryptocurrency site,” said the victim, requesting anonymity.
Police said that the victim received a message that he had to invest more money before November 14, else they would start deducting 30% of the principal amount every day from his account.
“The woman lured him to invest in cryptocurrency and sent a website link that showed huge returns on investments. We have started analysing the bank account details and other information available. We have also written to the bank to freeze the bank accounts so that the suspects cannot transfer money to any other account,” said Preet Pal Sangwan, assistant commissioner of police (crime).
The mobile number and the social media account used by the suspect have gone inactive for the last one week, police added.
On September 14 this year, a 32-year-old hearing and speech-impaired man, working with an e-commerce retail store, was arrested from Udyog Vihar for allegedly cheating people on the pretext of investing in cryptocurrency, police said.
The suspect had more than 15 crypto trading applications on his phone and used them to divert the cheated money to his associate in the United States, police added. The matter came to light after a man alleged that he was contacted by a woman named Diana on his social media platform.
ACP Sangwan said they receive at least two complaints related to cryptocurrency every week and cases of people being duped is on the rise.
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