Bizman loses Rs 1.6 cr to cryptocurrency trading fraud

Hyderabad: A 62-year-old businessman from Kapra was duped of 1.56 crore by fraudsters operating fake cryptocurrency trading portals. On the complaint of the victim, Malkajgiri cyber crime police have registered a case and launched a probe.The complainant told police that he came across the sites, finaltofiscal.com and m.pfpgoldfx.vip, while going through Facebook pages in Aug last year. Enticed by promises of expert guidance and high returns, he registered on finaltofiscal.com. The victim also shared his personal and banking details and began transferring money for trading cryptocurrency. "After an initial deposit of 50,000 appeared to yield a profit of 10,000, I continued to invest larger amounts," the victim said.
A fraudster identifying herself as Amulya Reddy kept in contact with him through WhatsApp, sharing screenshots of supposed gains and instructing him to keep all transactions confidential. When his displayed balance exceeded 50,000 USDT (45.3 lakh), fraudsters asked for a tax of about 23 lakh to unlock withdrawals. Even after the victim paid the ‘tax', the funds were withheld.Meanwhile, another agent, Sumathi, lured him to m.pfpgoldfx.vip, where he deposited 50,000, followed by transfers of larger sums ranging between 2 lakh and 6.5 lakh. The application soon showed fictitious profits of 38.7 lakh, but a transaction fee of 6.27 lakh was demanded to release the funds. As he was not allowed to withdraw from either of the platforms even after paying the amounts demanded by the fraudsters, the victim realised that he was duped and approached the Malkajgiri Cyber Crime police on Monday.The victim told police that between Aug 11, 2025 and Jan 9, 2026, in 23 separate transactions, he transferred 1.57 crore. "I received only 72,087 from the fraudsters and suffered a loss of 1.56 crore," the victim told police. Based on his complaint, police registered a case under Sections 316(2) (criminal breach of trust), 318(4) (cheating), 319(2) (cheating by personation) and 338 (forgery of valuable security, will, etc.) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and Sections 66C and 66D of the Information Technology Act.
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