Interior Designer Loses Rs 18.5 Lakh to Fraud, Bank Freezes Account
When she tried contacting the company, calls and messages went unanswered. On approaching her bank, she was informed the application was fake and her account, including Rs 5.5 lakh from a gold loan — had been frozen due to suspicious transactions.
Hyderabad: Two persons from Cyberabad lost Rs 21.76 lakh in separate cybercrime cases — one involving investment fraud and the other job fraud. Both cases have been registered with the cybercrime police.
In the first case, a 46-year-old interior designer from Manikonda lost Rs 18.56 lakh after being lured into investing through an online application. Between October and January, she transferred Rs 20.56 lakh to accounts linked to the app, after repeated calls promising high returns. While Rs 2 lakh was initially refunded, no further deposits were returned.
When she tried contacting the company, calls and messages went unanswered. On approaching her bank, she was informed the application was fake and her account, including Rs 5.5 lakh from a gold loan — had been frozen due to suspicious transactions.
“My account has been frozen and I cannot run my daily expenses. The funds also included money saved for my father’s medical treatment,” she told police. A case was registered on January 31 and investigation is underway.
In the second case, a 25-year-old engineering graduate from Madhapur lost Rs 3.2 lakh to fraudsters posing as recruiters for an MNC tech firm. The victim received a WhatsApp message in September from a man identifying himself as Sai Kumar Kalluri, who claimed to arrange jobs for data engineer and developer roles.
The accused allegedly demanded Rs 50,000 for registration and later collected Rs 3.2 lakh for interview scheduling, training, and security deposits. No interview took place, and when confronted, the victim was falsely assured of a refund before the fraudsters went unresponsive.
