A Bengaluru resident has allegedly been cheated of ₹1.39 crore in a sophisticated forex investment scam operated through Telegram and multiple fake trading platforms.
According to the complaint, the victim was approached on April 9 by a woman identifying herself as Nisha Sharma through Telegram using the handle “@Butterfly700k”.
Fraudsters built trust through small investments
The complainant told police that the woman persuaded him to invest in forex trading through platforms claiming to be associated with Roboforex.
He was later directed to communicate with another Telegram account, “@Roboforex_global_cs”, and was encouraged to invest through several websites, including Roboforex.com, Roewatson.com, rongfenxd.com and rodrigofxeges.com.
Initially, the victim was asked to make small investments of around ₹50,000. As apparent profits began appearing on the trading dashboard, he was allegedly convinced to invest larger amounts.
Fake profits led to massive losses
Police said the fraudsters allegedly displayed substantial returns on the online trading platform to gain the victim’s confidence.
Believing the profits to be genuine, the complainant continued transferring money over a period of time and eventually invested around ₹1.39 crore.
The trading account later showed a balance of nearly ₹4.5 crore, including what appeared to be significant profits.
Demand for ₹92.5 lakh raised suspicion
The fraud came to light when the victim attempted to withdraw the funds.
According to the complaint, individuals claiming to represent the trading platform informed him that he would first have to pay ₹92.5 lakh as “income tax” before the withdrawal could be processed.
Suspecting foul play, the victim realised that the profits displayed on the platform may have been fabricated to encourage further investments and that the additional demand for money was part of the scam.
Police have registered a case and launched an investigation into the alleged cyber fraud.