A Gurgaon government official was allegedly duped of Rs 40 lakh over a 10-day period after investing in cryptocurrency through links sent by unknown persons on Telegram. The complaint was lodged at the Cybercrime police station, South, by Vipin Yadav.
According to Yadav, he was promised attractive returns on the money he invested and ended up losing Rs 40,18,000. The links were sent to him via Instagram, which redirected him to Telegram, where he joined a group of five people who were investing in cryptocurrency.
Yadav had invested Rs 1,000 initially and received a return of Rs 1,400. He was then asked to invest a larger amount, which he did, however, he did not receive any returns after that. The transactions were made through his accounts in Canara Bank, ICICI Bank and UPI transactions.
The police registered a case on Wednesday, though the complaint was lodged on July 18. SHO, Cyber Crime police station South, Shahid Ahmed, said, “We had to collect all details and conduct a preliminary enquiry before registering a First Information Report (FIR). We have looked into the claims of the complainant and are investigating the case.”
Yadav told The Indian Express that he did not suspect anything amiss as he had been getting steady returns until one day he was asked to invest a total of Rs 35 lakh. He said he invested small amounts of money, such as Rs 1 lakh or Rs 80,000 at a time, and even got Rs 95,000 in return for Rs 50,000. These small investments eventually added up to Rs 40 lakh.
It was first reported on 22-09-2023 at 12:05 IST.
