Telangana Techie Loses Rs 50 Lakh in Investment Scam

 Hyderabad: An IT employee from Adibatla lost more than Rs 50 lakh in an online investment scam operated through WhatsApp and Telegram.

According to a complaint lodged by the 42-year-old victim, he was contacted on WhatsApp and redirected to a Telegram group where he was introduced to a lucrative task-based investment programme linked to international stock markets.

He was promised high earnings for completing online rating tasks and making small deposits. To build trust and credibility, the handlers first paid him a minimal amount for each task and convinced him that the platform was genuine.

As he started investing, he was told that higher ‘VIP levels’ would help him earn much larger profits. For this, he was asked to deposit Rs 80,000 and was later charged an additional “thawing fee” of the same amount.

Soon after transferring the amount, the victim was told that an additional payment was required to process the withdrawal, for which he paid Rs 16 lakh. However, the system repeatedly declined his requests, citing fabricated technical issues such as incorrect bank details and merchant account errors.

Each time, the fraudsters demanded fresh payments in the name of repair charges, unfreeze fees, or account score upgrades, while assuring him that the full balance would be released once the issues were resolved. Only, it never happened, and the chain continued.

Believing their explanations, he transferred multiple payments, often under pressure and time-bound threats of account blockage or freezing of bank accounts. Even after making the demanded payments, the platform continued to generate new reasons to block withdrawals. Only after losing more than Rs 50 lakh, the victim realised the entire setup was fraudulent and that the operators had no intention of returning his money. A case has been registered based on his complaint with the Rachakonda Cybercrime police, and the probe is underway.