Mumbai Cyber Safe: Woman loses ₹2.14 lakh in bitcoin fraud

Mumbai: The Kanjur Marg police have registered a case against a fraudster who duped a 31-year-old woman to the tune of Rs2.14 lakh by inducing her to invest in bitcoin mining and trading.

According to the police, on March 5, the complainant had received a message from one of her friends on Instagram, informing her that she had invested Rs80,000 in bitcoins and had earned a profit of Rs7.62 lakh. The complainant was then directed to a 'mentor' who induced her to invest Rs2.14 lakh in bitcoin mining and trading and made her transfer money to different bank accounts.

Instagram friend says his account was hacked

When the complainant was asked to invest more money, she inquired with her friend who informed her that her Instagram account had been hacked and that she had not sent any message to invest in bitcoins. The woman then approached the police and got a complaint lodged in the matter on Wednesday. She also provided details of the beneficiary accounts in which she had transferred the money.

The police have registered a case under the relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code and the Information Technology Act.

Mumbai police cautions citizens

According to Cyber Crime Cell under Crime Branch of Mumbai police , the most common form of online frauds are related to banks, online commerce platforms where fraudsters, posing as bank /platform officials, convince the victim to share OTP, KYC updates and sometimes send the links to be clicked to access bank accounts.“People should know that no bank or institution is authorised to demand for bank details or PIN numbers. Unfortunately, educated people are falling prey to online frauds and losing lakhs of rupees,” explained DCP Cyber Crime, Balsingh Rajput.