Bengaluru: Engineer loses Rs 95 lakh in bitcoin fraud

BENGALURU: A 53-year-old-engineer from the city allegedly lost Rs 95 lakh to cybercrooks who got him to invest in bitcoins promising higher returns.

Kumar (name changed), a resident of Shantalanagar, stated that a woman identifying herself as Sonia Shenoy befriended him on social media in 2021 and made him invest Rs 95 lakh in bitcoins between January 2022 and January 2023. Shenoy and her associates have now gone incommunicado, added Kumar.

Shenoy and Kumar met on Instagram. Shenoy told him that she had worked with many multinational investment firms dealing in bitcoins. “Trusting her, I invested in June 2022. In July, she told me that my profit of Rs 2 crore was ready but I had to make a payment of Rs 50 lakh towards TDS. Believing her, I arranged Rs 50 lakh by taking personal loans from different banks. She then told me the Rs 2 crore profit will be transferred to my account soon. I waited till and realised that I had been duped,” Kumar’s complaint read.