Lured on matrimonial portal, bank officialloses Rs 34 lakh in crypto investment scam

Bengaluru: A 33-year-old bank employee, who was searching for a match on a matrimonial website, fell prey to cybercrooks. He was tricked into investing money in crypto trading and was conned out of Rs 34 lakh.

According to a complaint filed by Nirmal (name changed), a resident of Horamavu, with the East CEN Crime police, the fraud occurred between April and June 24.

In April, he created a profile on a matrimonial website, and within a week, he received interest from a profile named ‘Mahima Majji', who introduced herself as a finance professional working at a hospital in the UK. She claimed that she was from Andhra Pradesh.

She would make calls and send messages to him on WhatsApp. She even made a video call, the complaint said.

On April 25, she talked about her hobbies and investing in cryptocurrencies. She explained how one could earn high returns by investing. She claimed she was one of the investors.

She then asked him if he was interested in investing, which he initially declined. However, she continued to persuade him, stating they could build their future together and avoid financial problems before tying the knot. Once she succeeded in convincing him, she introduced him to a cryptocurrency trading app. She guided him on how and when to make investment and assured him of her help at every step.

After he registered on the app, she sent him a link and he registered on the trading platform. He started making investments in thousands and saw good returns on the app. His first investment was Rs 60,000 on May 12, the second payment was Rs 1 lakh on May 19, and the third investment of Rs 2 lakh was on May 21. He continued transferring money to the bank accounts provided by her, including Rs 9 lakh, Rs 5 lakh, and the last one on June 24 was Rs 4 lakh. By then, he had transferred Rs 34.4 lakh in total.

During the fraud, Majji kept saying she was returning to India on July 18 and claimed they could have marriage discussions with their families. She also insisted he delete all the matrimony apps he had registered on, as she promised to marry him. The fraud came to light when Nirmal tried to withdraw his money from the platform, which was showing a fancy profit. Then someone, claiming to be a customer service executive of the platform, asked him to pay 5% of the total amount he had "invested", citing various charges, including income tax and processing fees, which amounted to around Rs 3.4 lakh.

Nirmal realised it was a cybercrime and called the cyber helpline 1930. Later, he lodged a complaint with the police. A case has been registered under the Information Technology Act and BNS 318 (cheating). Efforts are being made to freeze the money from the fraudsters' accounts, police said.