Bengaluru: Scammers are using new tricks every day to cheat people. One common method is the Bitcoin scam, where victims are tempted with promises of very high returns. A recent case from Bengaluru shows how dangerous it can be to reply to messages from unknown numbers on messaging apps.
How the Conversation Started
According to the police complaint, a 50-year-old man working in a private equity firm received a message on Telegram on November 30, 2025. The message was from a woman named Priya Agarwal, who claimed she was trying to contact someone else and had messaged him by mistake. Instead of ignoring it, the man replied.
Soon, they started chatting daily. The conversation later moved from Telegram to WhatsApp. Priya used a UK-based number and said she lived in Liverpool and ran a family business.
Bitcoin Trading Talk and Trust
Over time, Priya began talking about Bitcoin trading. She claimed she had made huge profits from online trading over the last four to five years. Slowly, the man started trusting her. She convinced him to invest and promised to guide him for better returns.
She sent him a link to a trading platform, where his account was created. On December 9, 2025, he invested ₹50,000 for the first time by transferring money to a bank account shared by the so-called customer support team.
Rs 70 Lakh Transferred, Fake Profits Shown
Seeing profits on the dashboard, the man kept investing more. Between December 2025 and January 14, 2026, he made eight transactions and transferred a total of Rs 70 lakh. To arrange funds, he even took loans from a bank and a finance company and invested all his savings.
The platform showed profits of up to ₹2.6 crore, making him believe everything was genuine.
Fraud Comes to Light
The fraud was exposed when he tried to withdraw money. His account was suddenly frozen. Customer support asked him to pay extra charges like tax and processing fees to release the funds. That’s when he realised he had been cheated.
He filed a complaint on the National Cyber Crime Portal. Police have registered a case under the IT Act and BNS Section 318 (cheating) and warned people not to respond to unknown messages promising quick and high returns.
