Odisha: Balangir engineer loses Rs 13 lakh in bitcoin fraud

BHUBANESWAR: A software engineer from Balangir district ended up losing Rs 13.37 lakh to cyber criminals, who promised him hefty returns through bitcoin trading.
The cybercrime police station of the state crime branch in Cuttack, which is probing the case, said Ritesh Agarwal from Titlagarh area invested Rs 13.37 lakh in a sham bitcoin trading platform, designed by the crooks.
In July last year, Agarwal (38) was added to a WhatsApp group by an unknown admin, who identified herself as Diana. The WhatsApp group’s name was BTC Road To Wealth26. Diana made Agarwal invest in bitcoins and insisted that he register himself with www.binance.com.
Agarwal evinced interest in bitcoin trading and completed the registration formalities on www.binance.com. He made his first investment of Rs 38,530 on July 25, 2021 and purchased 500 USDT (a cryptocurrency token) with that money. Diana further induced Agarwal to open an e-wallet with www.coinfu.2020.com and to transfer the purchased bitcoins to the wallet to get high returns. Agarwal followed her advice and got good returns from the e-wallet.
Subsequently, the fraudsters enticed Agarwal by luring him with different schemes. The unsuspecting software engineer made a total investment of Rs 13.37 lakh in different phases in July and August 2021. When Diana asked him to invest Rs 22 lakh more, Agarwal grew suspicious and tried to withdraw all his money from the e-wallet. But it was too late by then.