Indian national falls prey to Bitcoin scam on Telegram

An Indian national has become the latest victim of Bitcoin scammers on Telegram, falling prey to a scam that resulted in a loss of around Rs. 70 lakh ($77,300). The victim, a 50-year-old who works for a private firm, claimed he was lured into a fake Bitcoin investment by a woman he had accidentally met on the messaging platform Telegram.

According to the complaint filed by the victim, the first contact between him and the woman was on November 30, 2025. The resident of Kodihalli in east Bengaluru said the woman identified herself as Priya Agarwal and claimed she was attempting to contact a person named Rahul, but instead contacted him. Instead of ignoring the message, the victim pressed on with the conversation. However, unknown to him, he was the actual target, and the woman in question was a scammer who would steal his funds.

Indian national loses $77K to Bitcoin scammer on Telegram

According to the Indian national, the conversations started briefly, and they exchanged pleasantries at intervals. However, things moved fast, and they started exchanging chats regularly. They later shifted to WhatsApp, with the woman communicating from a +44 number. She told the Indian man that she was based in Liverpool, United Kingdom, and ran a family business. Over time, she started to gain his trust and used the opportunity to introduce him to Bitcoin trading.

Priya claimed she has been earning huge profits from her investments in the past four to five years. She also told him to invest and assured him that she would guide his investments and ensure he sees substantial rewards from his investment. The Indian victim sensed no issues with the investment scheme and chose to trust her. She sent him a link, he clicked on it, and it led him to download a trading application that will be used to carry out all his activities.

The Indian national said he created an account and made his first investment on December 5, 2025. He sent Rs. 50,000 to his account on the application, sending the funds through a physical account provided by someone who claimed to be a customer care support member of the platform. Encouraged by the profits that came from his first investment, he continued to make more investments. Between December 9, 2025, and January 14, 2026, the man made about eight transactions.

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According to the victim, the funds were sourced from his personal savings and loans from a bank and finance firm, which he took at Priya’s insistence. On the investment app, his balance soon swelled to Rs. 2.6 crore, which strengthened his belief that the Bitcoin investment scheme was genuine. However, the scam unraveled after he tried to withdraw some of his earnings from the application. He was met with several restrictions and was soon told that his account was frozen.

The man said he contacted the customer support and was told to deposit more funds into his account under the pretext of taxes and processing fees, to be able to enable withdrawal. It was then that the Indian national realized that he had fallen prey to an elaborate crypto investment scam. After realizing the scam, the man approached the police and lodged his complaint with the national cybercrime portal. The case was registered under the Information Technology Act and BNS Section 318 (cheating).

In its statement, the Indian police said it had released numerous statements in the past to dissuade people from investing in crypto investment schemes that have not been verified. It said that contacting people under the guise of mistakes is one of the ways that these criminals forge relationships with their victims. The Indian police claimed they usually use attractive women and lead their victims on in hopes that they would enter a romantic relationship before they strike.