As the popularity of cryptocurrencies surge across the globe, scammers are increasingly targeting people on the pretext of offering lucrative investment schemes. In the latest case, a woman from Hyderabad city in Telangana state of India has fallen victim to a crypto scam, losing ₹ 77 lakhs (INR 7.7 Million).
According to the Hyderabad Cyber Crime police, a 42-year-old woman from Begumpet, Hyderabad, was lured to invest in a cryptocurrency scheme with lucrative rate of interest by a group of scammers who first gained her trust by offering small sums of money, as part of a “bait” investment.
According to police, the victim woman received a part-time job offer on Telegram in December 2024. The offer promised easy earnings through simple tasks, which she began completing carefully and in return, she received a small payment, which built her trust in the scheme.
Operating under the name “Digit Trade Private Ltd,” the scammers assisted her in joining another Telegram group called “Digit Techno,” where she was tasked with a few activities such as liking and subscribing to certain YouTube channels. With each completed task, the fraudsters credited her bank account with ₹123. For a month, she received ₹22,000 through 100 small transactions of ₹123, to build her trust in the scheme.
As the scam progressed, they introduced her to a VIP program that assured assistance with crypto investments. The scammers guaranteed her that even if her investments faced losses, they would monitor and support them. Profits were shown in a virtual account on their platform, but when she attempted to withdraw her earnings, they blocked her access, claiming she needed further authorization. The fraudsters manipulated her by asking her to deposit more money into her capital account on the platform.
As reported by Times of India, the victim woman transferred large sums of money, sometimes sending up to ₹15 lakhs in a single day, as she believed that her investments were growing. The police official said, “Although she received small returns peaking at ₹6,100, she grew suspicious when she was denied access to her profits and pressured to pay additional amounts for taxes and service charges.”
It was only then that the woman concluded that she had been scammed. But by that time she has lost almost ₹77 lakhs, her entire family savings. However, the police are currently investigating the case and tracking the accounts to which the woman had transferred the money.
Further, the police have also advised to other public to avoid investing in unofficial platforms and to always use trusted, reputable services for any type of trading or investment.
Also Read: 2024 saw Spike in Crimes related to Crypto sector
