Hyderabad: A city-based software engineer has lost 3.15 crore in a cryptocurrency fraud, orchestrated by a woman who claimed to be from Texas, US. The victim, Naveenkumar Ramakrishna Manchala, has lodged a complaint with the Telangana Cyber Security Bureau, which has now registered an FIR.
Naveenkumar, who resides in LB Nagar, returned to Hyderabad after working in the US for 10 years.“After the pandemic, I returned home and do software contract work remotely. I have invested around 3.15 crore in crypto trading,” he said in his statement.
A woman, Subarna Agarwal, who claimed to be from West Lake, Texas, and originally from Delhi, reached out to him through Facebook Messenger, presenting herself as a senior software manager. “I asked her if there were any remote jobs in software,” Naveenkumar stated.
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Fifteen days later, Subarna reached out to him, sharing personal details, including the tragic news that her brother had died in an accident. “She said she does investments and told me about cryptocurrency trading. She said she would train me, and I could start with a small amount. She gave step-by-step instructions through WhatsApp,” Naveenkumar recounted.
Over time, Subarna convinced Naveenkumar to invest more money, showing him a profit of almost 40 lakh. “One day, she said on March 5 there was a big trade coming up, something that happens once in a while. She said she also collects money for her trading and told me to collect more money and invest. She made me take a loan,” Naveenkumar added.
By then, he had invested 3.15 crore into the trading website. Subarna leveraged the loan three times the total amount available on the trading site, which multiplied the investment threefold. After the trading was over, she instructed him to contact customer service to withdraw the money.
Funds withheld over loan
However, when Naveenkumar contacted customer service through a Telegram ID, they told him that he needed to pay clear the loan first before they could release the amount. “When I contacted Subarna Agarwal, she said I needed to pay the loan first,” Naveenkumar recounted.
As days passed, Subarna’s interest in guiding Naveenkumar waned, and she began instructing him to contact customer service directly to withdraw funds. When he did, he was repeatedly told that the loan needed to be cleared first. The Telangana Cyber Security Bureau is currently investigating the case.
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