Crypto investment scam costs Vizag techie ₹20L

: A 28-year-old software professional from Vizag city, working at a private company, has fallen victim to an online investment fraud, losing ₹20 lakh to an unidentified scammer.

The victim was contacted via

by a woman who introduced herself as

and claimed that she was working as a finance manager at Thornston and Ross. She stated that she was trading in cryptocurrency through the platform www.netobit.com.

The woman sent screenshots showing purported trading profits, gained his trust, and induced him to invest by promising quick, high returns. Trusting her claims, the victim initially invested ₹60,000 in Aug 2026, and the platform showed a profit of ₹4,000.

After receiving trading signals and seeing artificial growth in his application wallet, the victim was further enticed to invest more money, promised higher profits. Believing her words, he subsequently invested ₹20 lakh in four instalments of ₹5 lakh each through the immediate payment service using the OnRamp application.

The Indian rupees were converted into Tether (USDT), a cryptocurrency whose value is designed to mirror that of the US dollar, and transferred through a Trust Wallet address and thereafter to the wallet address provided for trading on the Netobit.com website.