Indian senior lost over $2.2M in a crypto investment fraud

A 70 year old Indian chartered accountant gave fraudsters ₹21.06 crore, or about $2.2 million, after they became friends with him on social media and led him to a phony cryptocurrency trading platform. The case is regarded by Madhya Pradesh police as one of the biggest online investment scams in the state.

Senior CA Ashok Vijayvargiya is the victim. Additionally, he serves as the Chief Returning Officer of the Madhya Pradesh Chamber of Commerce.

“Hello, this is Divya,” the scam’s opening message said, according to the paper. A slow-build confidence trick followed. He saw early gains on his cryptocurrency holdings from scammers. His investment increased steadily as a result of those seeming profits, reaching over $2.2 million.

The money only went in one direction. The operators kept coming up with excuses to withhold the payout when Vijayvargiya attempted to withdraw his money. The returns on his screen were never real, he realized.

The State Cyber Cell of Madhya Pradesh filed a case against anonymous suspects. The DSP in charge of the cell is Sanjeev Nayan Sharma.

According to the Free Press Journal, he stated that investigators are conducting technical tracing of 20 bank accounts, three WhatsApp numbers, and the URL of the fake trading portal. Before the operators proceed, the team wants to follow the IP trail and freeze the associated accounts.

Same template repeats across Indian states

Divyesh Patel, a 29-year-old software engineer, was detained by the City Cyber Crime Cell in Surat, Gujarat. A complainant in the online investment scam lost over ₹72.73 lakh, or about $76,000, after being tricked into trading cryptocurrencies via Telegram.

The victim was led to a fraudulent trading website and promised enormous profits, just like in Gwalior. After that, the funds disappeared into a series of other accounts.

According to the police, ₹17 lakh or about $17,700 of the victim’s money ended up in Patel’s IDBI Bank account. In exchange for a 2% cut on the transactions, he allegedly rented out his banking account to a fugitive accomplice. The same account has already appeared in eight cyber fraud complaints from various states, investigators told IANS.

This is connected to ₹24.72 crore or about $2.5 million in alleged fraud. Patel was charged by Surat police under Section 66(D) of the Information Technology (Amendment) Act, 2008 and several sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023.

According to Cryptopolitan, the Enforcement Directorate detained Bengaluru hacker Srikrishna, also known as Sriki, in May in connection with a Bitcoin theft case valued at roughly ₹11.5 crore, or $1.3 million. According to Cryptopolitan’s coverage of that report, the FBI recorded $11.4 billion in cryptocurrency losses in the US in 2025, a 22% increase over the previous year.

The arrest was accompanied by a warning from the Surat Cyber Crime Cell. Police advised people to confirm any unsolicited offers related to cryptocurrency, stock trading, or forex. They advised leaving and blocking unfamiliar Telegram or WhatsApp groups and viewing modest early returns as bait.

Additionally, they advised people to report suspected fraud immediately through the cybercrime helpline and cautioned against sending money to strangers they met on social media or marriage websites.