Lured with crypto windfall, Hyderabad techie loses over Rs 2.9 crore

HYDERABAD: A 52-year-old former software professional from Nizampet lost over Rs 2.9 crore after being lured by fraudsters into investing in ‘cryptocurrency’ through a fake platform.On his complaint, Cyberabad police booked a cheating case on Wednesday. The victim from Nizampet was contacted by a fraudster who posed as Jyothsna Reddy on Facebook in June 2025 after he accepted her friend request.“She claimed to be a Bengaluru-based bridal dress designer. Jyothsna told me that she was also into cryptocurrency investment,” the victim told police.The fraudster persuaded the victim to install a fraudulent application, Goldblockchainx, where she created an account for him. She guided him about trading on the app.Initially, the victim invested Rs 50,000, and he was allowed to withdraw a small amount, which convinced him the platform was genuine.As the app dashboard began showing good profits, he continued transferring money to multiple bank accounts and UPI IDs provided by an inbuilt chatbot on the platform.“It was claimed that the bank accounts belonged to franchisees of the company, who converted Indian rupees into dollars before crediting them to the trading platform,” the victim said.The victim transferred Rs 2.9 crorebetween July 11 and Sept 8, 2025. Despite paying ‘taxes and clearance charges’, he was not allowed to withdraw the funds. He said the fraudster never shared a phone number or address and avoided video calls.