The fraudster introduced herself as a Hong Kong resident. (File)An engineer from Mumbai was duped of Rs 50.40 lakh by a cyber fraudster posing as a crypto analyst from China. An FIR was registered on October 29 with the west region cyber police station.
The 42-year-old engineer is a resident of Andheri. On August 26, he received a WhatsApp message from a cyber fraudster posing as a Chinese woman. The message read, “Are you Mr Desai Sharma from Travel India?” The complainant replied to her message that he wasn’t and she was mistaken.
The fraudster introduced herself as a Hong Kong resident. She said her name was Zhang Yami and she worked for JP Morgan as a cryptocurrency analyst. She then started chatting with him and the two became “friends”.
She said ‘People’s Bank of China and JP Morgan’ were investing in DCEP crypto coins and promised 3-10 per cent daily interest if he invested in crypto coins. She then sent a fraudulent link and asked the complainant to download the Yandex browser and open the link. He followed the instructions and invested $500 in the firm.
The complainant made good profit on his initial investment and got lured. From September 2 till September 16, he invested over $41,000. He tried to withdraw money but was unable to do so. He then chatted with a person from ‘customer care of the firm’ and was told to pay 30 per cent tax. He paid over $17,000 but was still not able to withdraw money. He was again asked to pay another 10 per cent to withdraw money. This time, he realised he was being cheated and approached cyber police.