A Bengaluru resident who signed up for what he believed was a promising online crypto-trading opportunity alleged that he was cheated of Rs 42.62 lakh through a fraudulent platform.
According to the FIR filed on November 14, the 45-year-old man, Shakthivel E, was contacted on social media platform Instagram and later added to an online trading guidance group led by a person identifying himself as Ashutosh Sharma on Telegram. He was offered a seven-day trading arrangement on Ethereum/USD pairs, with the promise of profits and a 15 per cent commission on earnings. Initially, he received some returns from multiple bank accounts.
The victim stated that the trading platform later showed 138687.22 USDT in his wallet. However, when he attempted to withdraw the amount, the scammers claimed that the bank details he had provided were incorrect and demanded an additional Rs 4 lakh to correct the information. They also imposed late payment fees, USD-INR conversion charges, and even demanded supposed RBI tax payments.
To meet these demands, he borrowed money from Bajaj Finance, the Axio app, friends and through personal loans. The payments were made from his bank accounts to various bank accounts and UPI IDs linked to the alleged scammers.
In total, he transferred Rs 42,62,081 between July 3 and August 1 this year but was unable to withdraw any amount from the portal. Realising he had been duped, the Bengaluru resident approached police seeking legal action and assistance in recovering his money.
Authorities are now verifying the details provided in the complaint, including the crypto wallet address, mobile numbers and the suspicious domain used for trading.
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