Cyber fraud: ‘Facebook friend’ cheats 66-year-old businessman of Rs 21.6 lakh

It mentioned that the victim and Ananya also had conversations via WhatsApp audio and video calls. She shared photographs with her family members to make the victim believe that she was genuine. According to the FIR, Ananya asked him to invest money in crypto currency during a WhatsApp call with him on January 7, 2026 assuring lucrative returns. The victim said he would talk about it in detail during their meeting in March. But Ananya told him to just invest Rs 10,000. As per her instructions, the victim downloaded the “Binance App” from the playstore on his cell phone. She also forwarded a link to him, asking him to click on it, register himself and start trading by paying Rs 10,000.

After the victim initially made two payments of Rs 10,000 on January 7 and January 8, the “Binance App” on his cell phone showed that he received 200 USDT (crypto currency stablecoin) in return.

Later, the victim received Rs 60,000 in his bank account by following certain procedures on the “Binance App” as instructed to him by Ananya. So, he decided to invest more into crypto currency. Ananya then made the victim join a WhatsApp group, where another person guided him on further investments.

Police said till January 14, the victim transferred about Rs 21.63 lakh from his bank account through multiple online transactions. The fraudulent app showed he had received about Rs 98 lakh in return. But, when the victim was asked to transfer Rs 29 lakh more to claim his profit, he felt suspicious and realised he had been duped, the FIR mentioned.

He filed a complaint application at the Cyber police station in Pune city on January 18. After verification, an FIR was lodged in this case on February 5. Police have booked the unidentified online scammers under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) sections 318 (4), 319 (2) and sections of the Information Technology (IT) Act. Police are probing the phone numbers, Facebook account and bank accounts used by the cyber fraudsters to commit the crime.