Honey-trapped, private company director loses Rs 6.5 crore in trading scam

Noida: A man lost Rs 6.5 crore after he was persuaded by a woman he met on a dating site to invest in a trading website.
The victim, director of a company, Daljeet Singh of Sector-76, filed a complaint with the Cyber Crime Police on Wednesday, saying that a woman named Anita Chauhan, whom he met through a dating site, coerced him into taking loans and investing in a fake online trade website.
Singh told police that he met Chauhan last year in Dec. After establishing a rapport, she started to persuade him to trade through a platform named Spreadex, and he initially invested Rs 3.2 lakh, which earned him a profit of Rs 24,000, and he withdrew Rs 8,000.
The victim made more investments through the site and Telegram handles provided by the accused. The site, however, went offline in Jan 2025, after which the woman provided new links to the trade platforms in Jan and March. Singh said that the woman also forced him to take a loan of Rs 2 crore, and he ended up transferring Rs 6.52 crore into the different bank accounts provided by Chauhan. And when he questioned the accused, she convinced him that it was a strategy to save taxes.
When Singh tried to withdraw his earnings through the Telegram handle with Spreadex's name, he was asked by the scammers to deposit 30% more as a deposit fee.
After depositing the money, the victim was told that he made a profit of USD 250,000 (approximately Rs 2 crore), but he would have to pay USD 77,000 (Rs 61.62 lakh) as an exchange service fee. Meanwhile, Chauhan also tried to convince Singh to pay the exchange service fee.
A case was registered under sections 318(4) (cheating) and 319(2) (cheating by personation) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and section 66D of the IT Act. Further investigation is underway.