According to the Thane police, the complainant is a resident of Thane. On April 29, her mobile number was added in a WhatsApp group that was providing information about crypto-currency trading through expert analysts.
The complainant agreed to invest after which the scammers shared a web link with her on which she could track her investments and earnings, police said. Between June 3 and June 7, the complainant was induced to pay Rs30.80 lakh through 12 online transactions in different beneficiary bank accounts provided by the scammers.
The complainant could see her total earnings of 1.10 lakh US dollars on the web link provided by the scammers. However, when she tried to withdraw her earnings, she was unable to do so. She then confronted the scammers who told her to pay more money as taxes to get her earnings. The complainant suspected something amiss and then realised that the web link provided to her was bogus.
She then approached the police and got an offence registered in the matter. She has provided details of the WhatsApp group floated by the scammers, their contact details, bogus web link details and transaction details to the police in her complaint.
A case has been registered under sections 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention), 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) of the Indian Penal Code and sections 66C (identity theft), 66D (cheating by personation by using computer resource) of the Information Technology Act.
