A 60-year-old Indian woman lost nearly $30,000 in a crypto investment scam after she was approached on the matrimonial site where she had registered herself to look for a life partner.

The con man told her that he was a US-based engineer and can make her earn quick profits through bitcoin investments.  

Investment in Love Gone Wrong

According to media reports, the Mumbai woman, who is a retired executive from a private company, registered on a matrimonial website in early 2022. Soon, she was approached by a person on the site, and the two exchanged their phone numbers and started calling and chatting regularly.

In March 2022, the man told her about a cryptocurrency investment opportunity and how he, purportedly, was making huge passive incomes. He shared the phone number of another person and told her that he would guide her in making the investments.

Between April 2022 and December 2022, the woman invested nearly $30,000 (INR2.4 million) in cryptocurrencies through “the guide.” At one point of time when she had $62,000 in her virtual account, she asked “the guide” to help her withdraw the money. They told her that she would need to pay a currency conversion fee and taxes equivalent to $15,000 to withdraw the money.

While she was still thinking about what to do, she noticed that the duo had stopped communicating, and her virtual account had become dysfunctional.

At this stage, she approached the police and complained. According to the authoirites, a case has been registered under relevant sections of cheating, forgery, and criminal conspiracy.   

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