An executive of a Gurugram-based consulting firm was defrauded of about Rs 38 lakh by a woman who befriended him through a matrimonial site, police said.
The victim was lured into investing in a cryptocurrency named deuncoin and was asked for various other charges, they said.
An FIR was registered at Cyber Crime East police station, police said, adding that the accused will be arrested soon.
According to a complaint filed by the consulting firm executive Naman Aggarwal, he met a woman named Ridhi Sharma via jeevansaathi.com in November 2023.
The woman claimed to have been living in London for the past five years and that she was a native of Kolkata. After talking for some time, he developed a liking for her, Naman Aggarwal said.
“One day she lured me to invest in cryptocurrency and made my trading account on the website m.deuncoin.vip. The link to this website was sent by her on WhatsApp and the customer care team of the trading platform was also communicated with via WhatsApp.
“She asked me to invest Rs 10 lakh initially and said she will transfer a similar amount to my trading account.
On December 20, the victim said he received a message on WhatsApp from the Deuncoin customer care support team that the amount transferred by Ridhi Sharma was an act of money laundering and came under the scanner of financial action, and the task force asked him to deposit a similar sum within 24 hours to restore the normal status of the trading account warning that it would otherwise be frozen.
“I deposited Rs 10 lakh again and asked them for withdrawal of my money. They forced me to transfer money in the name of different charges,” the man said in his complaint.
Even after paying Rs 38 lakh, they were still demanding more money which convinced him that the woman was involved in the whole “fraud”, the man said.
The modus operandi was to first win the man’s trust and then make him a victim of financial fraud,” Naman Aggarwal said.
Based on the complaint, an FIR was registered against the unknown woman and other fraudsters under Section 420 (cheating) of IPC at the cyber police station, east. A senior cyber police officer said that a probe is underway and the accused will be arrested soon.
