FPJ Cyber Secure: Techie loses ₹23.63 lakh to crypto fraud

A 23-year-old software engineer lost ₹23.63 lakh after falling prey to a crypto investment fraud which started with the trap of a part-time job of liking YouTube videos. In his complaint filed at the N M Joshi Marg Police, Pragyesh Parabkar said that he received a message from an unknown WhatsApp number on May 11. The sender of the text said that he works for YouTube and gave an offer of earning quick money by liking videos.

Subsequently, three video links were forwarded to the aggrieved who 'liked' them. He was then asked to join a Telegram group after which he received ₹150 for liking the previous videos. In the next two days, he earned ₹600 in this manner. Sensing it as an opportune moment, the fraudster suggested Parabkar to invest in crypto. He even forwarded the link to a website http://clobtc.com and asked the engineer to create his account on it.

Parabkar then 'invested' ₹1,000 and earned ₹1,300, which was deposited in the website account. Next time, he deposited ₹10,100 in four transactions and got back ₹10,700. High on confidence, the engineer then deposited a total of ₹23.6 lakh in six transactions in the bank account provided by the fraudster. However, Parabkar didn't get any returns this time.

When he tried to contact the fraudster, he received no response. Finally, the engineer sensed the fraud.