Delhi Resident Falls Victim to Telegram Fraudsters, Losing Rs 12 Lakh in Major Crypto Investment Scam

Online scams are rampant in India and over the past year we have seen many new scams affecting Indian citizens. One of these scams are investment scams like Telegram and WhatsApp. In this scam, scammers offer investment opportunities and promise significant returns on your money. However, when the victims invest, the scammers keep an eye on them, ask them to invest more and later deny the profits. By the time victims realize what has happened, it is usually too late.

In a recent incident related to the same scam, an engineer named Ankit Chaudhary from Delhi lost Rs 12,000. He reportedly came across a Telegram message that offered him an opportunity to invest his cryptocurrency and in return get a substantial return on his investment, according to a report by ANI.

Thinking it a real money making opportunity, Chaudhary invested Rs 10,000. He got Rs 15,000 in return and this was a ploy by the scammers to hook him into the scam and earn his trust. Based on this, the scammers managed to convince him to invest more and he ended up investing a whopping Rs 12,00,000.

“I received a message on the Telegram channel asking me to invest in cryptocurrency. Initially I invested 10 thousand, and after some time I got 15 thousand in return,” the victim told ANI. “Later I invested 15 thousand, and at the same time I got 20 thousand. Due to this, I became greedy and invested about ? 12 lakh in various transactions, but I did not get my money back,” he added.

After he realized what had happened, the man lodged an FIR and now a case under 420 has been registered at the cyber police station in North East Delhi.

Always make sure to double or triple check to protect yourself from these types of scams, no matter how lucrative the opportunity looks. If it seems too good to be true, it usually is. Also look for inconsistencies in the scammers’ language. In general, scammers often make grammatical and spelling mistakes and may even present you with a poorly worded message. Secondly, never share your personal details like Aadhar number, bank details, OTPs with anyone as this may cause you further problems.