Two separate cases of investment fraud reported this week from Hyderabad and Lucknow have once again exposed how cybercriminals are systematically preying on older Indians with fabricated cryptocurrency trading schemes, fake SIP platforms, and social engineering tactics that stretch across months and sometimes years.
The combined losses from the two cases exceed ₹4.3 crore. And in both instances, the victims were elderly individuals who were either retired or approaching retirement, lured in with promises of extraordinary returns and trapped in a cycle of escalating deposits that ended only when the money ran out.
Hyderabad: Retired professor loses ₹3.2 crore to fake crypto platform
In Hyderabad, a retired professor from the University of Hyderabad (UoH) was cheated of ₹3.2 crore after being drawn into what appeared to be a legitimate cryptocurrency trading operation.
According to a report by The Times of India, the scam began when the professor found himself added to a Telegram group that posed as an investment advisory channel. A man identified as Aman Kumar, who claimed to be a professional stock trader, approached the victim within the group and started pitching cryptocurrency arbitrage as a high-return, low-risk opportunity.
The professor, who had recently retired and was looking for ways to grow his savings, registered on the platform after paying an initial fee of ₹8,500. From there, the scam followed a textbook escalation. The fraudsters operated a fake trading dashboard that showed fabricated profits and a rapidly growing account balance.
At one point, the dashboard displayed a balance of ₹4.55 crore, which was entirely fictitious but effective enough to convince the victim to keep depositing more.
Between September and December, the professor transferred over ₹2.58 crore across multiple transactions to bank accounts and UPI IDs provided by the fraudsters. The payments covered what the scammers described as investments, taxes, and transaction fees.
Every attempt the professor made to withdraw his funds was met with delays, excuses, or additional payment demands. At one point, the fraudsters told him he needed to pay ₹80 lakh more just to process a withdrawal. That is when the professor finally realized he had been conned.
He filed a complaint with the Rachakonda Cybercrime Police, who registered a case under relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and Sections 66C and 66D of the Information Technology Act. The investigation is underway, with officers examining the digital trail left behind by the accused.
A second elderly victim from Hyderabad, a 69-year-old retired bank manager, was also cheated of ₹63.15 lakh by a separate set of fraudsters who used WhatsApp to impersonate a US-based stockbroker and convinced the victim to invest through yet another fake trading platform. The combined losses from both Hyderabad cases crossed ₹3.2 crore.
Lucknow: Businessman duped of ₹1.15 crore in SIP-turned-crypto scheme
Meanwhile, in Lucknow, a businessman named Rajendra Singh Chauhan, a resident of Puran Nagar in the Krishnanagar area, reported that he had been defrauded of ₹1.15 crore through a long-running investment scam that began with SIPs and eventually shifted to cryptocurrency.
According to the complaint filed with the local police, Chauhan first met the accused, Himanshu Gihar, in 2019. Over time, Gihar built a personal rapport with the businessman and eventually convinced him to invest in SIPs, promising returns of up to ten times the investment every month.
Between 2021 and 2023, Chauhan invested approximately ₹50 lakh. He did not receive a single rupee in return.
When Chauhan confronted the accused about the lack of returns, Gihar claimed the SIP investments had resulted in losses. He then suggested that the businessman move his money into cryptocurrency, assuring him that not only would the crypto investments generate fresh profits, but the previously lost ₹50 lakh would also be recovered.
Hoping to recoup his earlier losses, Chauhan invested another ₹65 lakh between 2023 and 2025. The money was transferred to bank accounts belonging to the accused’s family members, not directly to the accused himself. Gihar used a mobile application to show fabricated investment progress, with his own email ID and mobile number linked to the app.
Neither the original ₹50 lakh nor the additional ₹65 lakh was ever returned. According to Chauhan, when he started demanding his money back, the accused stalled him until April 2026, and then began issuing threats. A case has been registered and Inspector PK Singh confirmed that the investigation is underway based on available evidence.
A pattern that keeps repeating
What ties these two cases together, beyond the financial losses, is the playbook. Social engineering through messaging platforms. Fake dashboards showing inflated balances. A steady drip of small demands that escalate into massive transfers. And an exit strategy that relies on intimidation, silence, or simply vanishing.
The Hyderabad professor was lured through Telegram. The Lucknow businessman was trapped through an in-person relationship built over years. But the end result was identical: life savings drained through a combination of fabricated urgency and manufactured trust.
These are not isolated incidents. Just last week, a Ludhiana-based industrialist lost nearly ₹20 crore in a pig butchering crypto scam that was run through Facebook and WhatsApp, with funds routed through 76 forged bank accounts across 15 banks.
In Hyderabad itself, a 56-year-old software professional lost ₹2.92 crore to a fake trading platform just days ago, after being added to a WhatsApp group called “Riding the Wind Club Discussion Group” that posted manipulated profit screenshots.
And earlier this month, India’s Ministry of Home Affairs issued a fresh advisory warning against Trust Wallet crypto drainer scams after observing a sharp rise in related complaints on the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal.
The numbers at the national level paint a grim picture. Over 24 lakh cybercrime complaints were filed on the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal in 2025, with reported fraud losses totalling ₹22,495 crore. The recovery rate remains dismal. Of the ₹36,448 crore in cumulative losses reported since the portal’s inception, only ₹60.52 crore has actually been returned to victims.
The Indian government’s PRAHAAR counter-terrorism strategy, released in February 2026, specifically flagged the growing use of crypto wallets by criminal networks. A dedicated darknet and cryptocurrency task force has been set up under the Multi-Agency Centre.
The Union Budget 2025-2026 allocated ₹782 crore for cybersecurity projects. And from April 1, 2026, new powers under the Income Tax Bill allow authorities to access crypto wallets, emails, and social media during authorized searches.
But for the retired professor in Hyderabad and the businessman in Lucknow, none of that arrived in time. The infrastructure is catching up. The scammers, as always, got there first.
Law enforcement agencies continue to advise citizens to verify any investment platform with SEBI before transferring funds, to avoid responding to unsolicited financial offers on social media or messaging platforms, and to report suspicious activity immediately through the national cyber helpline at 1930 or via cybercrime.gov.in.
Also Read: ₹60L Crypto Scam: India Cyber Cell Nabs Suspect Linked to Fraud Network
