Dehradun: 

The victim, a cloth merchant, had reportedly transferred Rs 2.67 crore in total, but when he failed to withdraw any amount, he realised that he has been cheated. Subsequently, a complaint was lodged, based on which the cyber police registered a case and launched an investigation.

A businessman from Uttarakhand's Rishikesh has been allegedly duped of over Rs 2.5 crore by a woman after being lured with promise of high returns on cryptocurrency investments.

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.

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."

By March, the victim had invested a total of Rs 2.67 crore. Though it showed that he earned profit, he could not withdraw any amount from his digital wallet available on the site. When the victim contacted the customer care, he was asked to deposit 6% customs duty to withdraw the amount. After this, the victim realised that he had been duped and immediately filed a complaint.

Read More :

Happy Birthday Rani Mukerji: A Look At The Actor's Bollywood Journey, Personal Life, Net Worth, And More