Noida: A pal request from cyber cons 5 months in the past trapped a 40-year-old businessman, who allegedly misplaced Rs 2.9 crore in a web based foreign currency trading rip-off.Influenced by a girl’s claims of “15-20% revenue per buying and selling session”, the Noida resident made his first funding of Rs 50,000 on July 4, 2025. Within the following months, he continued to take a position bigger quantities — typically by borrowing cash and taking loans — making a complete of 17 transactions between July and Oct. The scamsters allegedly confirmed the complainant inflated earnings on the platform dashboard, which appeared to develop to just about Rs 7.9 crore, however each try and withdraw his cash failed. As soon as he began questioning the shortcoming to withdraw funds, the accused blocked him on WhatsApp and Fb, following which he realised he was cheated.On Thursday, an FIR was registered on the Cyber Crime police station below sections 318(4) (dishonest) and 319(2) (dishonest by personation) of BNS, together with Part 66D of the IT Act following a written grievance by the businessman. The WhatsApp quantity utilized by the suspect has additionally been supplied to the police. Police have initiated efforts to hint the digital footprint of the suspects, analyse the fund path and coordinate with banking and cyber-forensic items.The scamsters first befriended the businessman on Fb and later lured him into investing by means of a platform promising excessive every day returns. Based on the FIR, the incident started on June 25, when the complainant obtained a pal request from a girl figuring out herself as Sunaina Sharma, claiming to be from Jabalpur (Madhya Pradesh). After a couple of days of informal dialog, they linked on WhatsApp, the place the accused allegedly started discussing a web based foreign currency trading platform named ‘Finalto’. She allegedly confirmed Pandey screenshots of her pockets displaying revenue, convincing him that the funding supplied extraordinary returns. He transferred the cash to totally different accounts linked with the fraudulent platform. A senior cybercrime official mentioned such circumstances have surged in latest months, notably these involving “romance-cum-investment” scams the place fraudsters lure targets into emotional or pleasant relationships earlier than steering them towards pretend funding platforms.“These fraudsters use polished profiles, professional-looking buying and selling dashboards and fabricated revenue statements to achieve belief. As soon as the sufferer is deep within the lure, they vanish,” the official mentioned.
