Bengaluru man loses Rs 95 lakh in bitcoins to scammer: report

The man and the woman met on Instagram and the latter told the former that she worked for a multinational investment company which dealt in bitcoins. (Representational Image).

A Bengaluru engineer,53, lost Rs 95 lakh to a scammer who made him invest the money in bitcoins and promised him higher returns, a Times of India report said.

The man, a resident of Shantinagar area of the city, said that a woman, who identified herself as Sonia Shenoy, befriended the man on social media in 2021 and asked him to invest Rs 95 lakh in bitcoins between January 2022-2023.

The man and the woman met on Instagram and the latter told the former that she worked for a multinational investment company which dealt 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," the man wrote in his complaint.

The man added that he arranged for Rs 50 lakh and was promised that he would get Rs 2 crore in return.

"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," he added.

This is not the first instance of a Bengaluru man losing money after investing in bitcoins for higher returns.

In 2021, a Bengaluru-based crypto trader, who was inexperienced in trading, lost Rs 10 lakh to a scammer who promised to offer higher returns and handle his account.

The man, a lecturer with a private college in the city, lodged a complaint with the local police after losing the money.