Bengaluru Man Duped Of ₹42.6 Lakh In Online Crypto-Trading Scam, FIR Filed

Last Updated:November 18, 2025, 13:43 IST

The complainant said he borrowed money from Bajaj Finance, the Axio app, friends and personal loan providers.

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A Bengaluru resident who believed he had found a legitimate online crypto-trading opportunity has alleged that he was defrauded of ₹42.62 lakh by operators of a fake trading platform. According to the FIR registered on November 14, the victim, 45-year-old Shakthivel E, was first contacted on Instagram before being added to a Telegram “trading guidance" group run by someone identifying himself as Ashutosh Sharma.

He was offered a seven-day trading plan on Ethereum/USD pairs, with assurances of steady profits and a 15 per cent commission. In the initial days, he received small returns from multiple bank accounts, which made the scheme appear genuine.

Shakthivel told police that the platform later displayed 138687.22 USDT in his trading wallet. However, when he attempted to withdraw the amount, the operators claimed his bank details were “incorrect" and demanded an additional ₹4 lakh to fix the issue. Over the next several days, they allegedly imposed penalties, late fees, USD-INR conversion charges and even asked him to pay a fake “RBI tax" to release his funds.

To meet these escalating demands, the complainant said he borrowed money from Bajaj Finance, the Axio app, friends and personal loan providers. He transferred funds from his bank accounts to a series of bank accounts and UPI IDs shared by the scammers. Between July 3 and August 1, he sent a total of ₹42,62,081, but was never able to withdraw a single rupee from the trading portal.

Realising he had been conned, he approached Bengaluru Police seeking action against the fraudsters and assistance in recovering his money. Investigators are now examining the details mentioned in the complaint, including the crypto wallet used, mobile numbers involved and the suspicious trading domain employed in the scam.

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News india Bengaluru Man Duped Of ₹42.6 Lakh In Online Crypto-Trading Scam, FIR Filed

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