A woman living in Delhi has apparently lost around Rs 41 lakh from an unidentified hacker. The resident from Mayur Vihar has lodged a theft complaint to the economic offences wing of the Delhi Police.
According to reports, the woman first lost bitcoins worth Rs 6.5 lakh to hackers who accessed her bitcoin account. The rest of the amount was lost after she trusted cheats who promised to help her retrieve the lost money.
The cyber cell of Delhi Police has reportedly started their investigation into the matter.
The woman explained to the police that she made an initial investment to buy 0.4 bitcoin in February 2017, which she did via a firm that promised her returns of 12 percent every month on her investment which she did receive until August in her bank account.
In the meantime, she had poured more money in the cryptocurrency platform as her mutual fund investment matured. “I invested all my savings in the company along with my friends and family members. The company owners assured me returns of 12 percent monthly on my investment,” the victim was quoted saying in a report.
Nevertheless, after August, the company started giving out the returns in its own cryptocurrency, a move that displeased her and against which she protested along with the other investors. Sensing a fraud, the woman requested the company to return the invested money.
The company then asked her to provide them with her email ID and password registered on the company’s website to initiate the refunding process, to which the woman complied, not suspecting a trap.
“On November 8, 2017, my blockchain wallet was hacked, which had 6.5 Bitcoins. The hackers also deleted all the data on my email ID,” the woman said.
A few days later, she contacted an acquaintance who vowed to help her recoup her lost money by ‘earning’ Bitcoins through binary trading. The woman paid a total of Rs 35 lakh.
“After getting the amount, he started complaining that he has been diagnosed with throat cancer and cannot meet anyone. Later, he stopped responding to our calls and other communications,” the woman said in the report.