The Pune rural police has registered an FIR on Monday and a probe has been launched by Bhor police.

Using a fake social media profile of a British national settled in Noida with family business in Singapore, cyber criminals duped a Pune pharmacist of over Rs 9 lakh by manipulating him to invest in cryptocurrency with promises of very high returns.

Earlier this week, a 30-year-old pharmacist, a resident of Bhor taluka, registered a complaint at Bhor police station under Pune rural police. A few days ago, he connected with a woman on Facebook, who identified herself as a British national currently settled in Noida. As the complainant started chatting, the ‘woman’ shared her international WhatsApp number. Sometime later, she said that she was going to Singapore where her family has a business.

The woman sometimes spoke with the complainant on audio calls and frequently sent her photos to him. A while later, she told him that she had found a very good investment opportunity in cryptocurrency promising very high returns. Initially reluctant to make any investment, the complainant was persuaded and manipulated by the woman into sending money by sharing fake screenshots of profits earned by her. He was made to register on a fraudulent cryptocurrency exchange before being asked to send money.

The complainant was asked to send money to certain bank accounts and the fraudulent exchange showed high corresponding earnings. The woman he had been in contact with was giving him instructions on sending money. Against investment of Rs 2.95 lakh, the fraudulent application showed returns of Rs 22 lakh, said police.

50% Singapore govt tax’

When the complainant sought to withdraw the money, he was asked to pay Rs 11 lakh as 50 per cent tax to the Singapore government against his earnings. When the complainant told the woman he did not have that amount, she told him to send as much possible. He ended up sending Rs 6.27 lakh and again asked for the women’s help in getting his earnings. It was at this point that the woman went incommunicado and the complainant realised that he had been cheated.

He approached the Pune rural police and an FIR was registered on Monday. A probe has been launched by Bhor police.

In a similar case reported last year, a city-based software engineer connected with a woman named Elizabeth who claimed she was in a winery business and cryptocurrency trading. The victim, who had been investing in bitcoins for some time, was offered tutorials on crypto trading to earn high profits.

Over a period of 10 days from the beginning of their interaction, the victim ended up investing over 40,600 Tether cryptocurrency (referred to as USDT) equivalent to over Rs 33 lakh in a fake cryptocurrency exchange. While the exchange website kept reflecting high returns on each of the investments, when he tried withdrawing, it became evident that the exchange did not exist.

Risks of crypto investment frauds flagged

Cyber investigators in Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad have urged people not to fall prey to fraudulent cryptocurrency investment platforms to which victims are often lured through deceptive social media advertisements, fake social media profiles, or phone messenger groups.

Cyber investigators have suggested that the investors should use only trusted and known cryptocurrency exchanges and have stressed that investors specifically do research on the names of these cryptocurrency exchanges and check if they use similar sounding names as that of known platforms.

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