Hyderabad consultant loses ₹3.5 crore in alleged multi-platform forex and crypto investment fraud
HYDERABAD: A 66-year-old consultant from Kondapur allegedly lost ₹3,54,59,259 in an online investment fraud involving multiple forex and cryptocurrency trading platforms, police said on March 9, 2026.
The complainant, Rajeshwer Dongara, a resident of Kondapur, told police that unknown persons lured him through social media into investing large sums on various online trading websites.
Fraud began through Facebook contact and WhatsApp chats
According to the complaint, the victim first received a message on Facebook on February 28, 2026 from a woman identifying herself as Navya Suraj from Delhi. She later contacted him on WhatsApp.
She reportedly persuaded him to invest in a trading platform called Catalyst Markets and guided him to open an account. The website was later changed to pc.omnifxpro.com, the complainant said.
Dongara alleged that the woman also invested small amounts into his account to build trust and encouraged him to trade and invest further.
Suspects allegedly changed identities during interaction
During the course of the interaction, the complainant said the woman later appeared under another name with Kajal Mishra, claiming to be a co-founder of a Delhi-based fitness organisation.
Later, he noticed that the same phone number was linked to another profile identifying herself as Anushka Sharma from Chandigarh, who claimed to run a clothing manufacturing business. She reportedly advised him to continue investing on the platform and even claimed to have invested ₹5 lakh herself.
Dongara told police that after he invested about ₹1.5 crore on the platform, his withdrawal requests were blocked. The platform allegedly demanded additional payments and loans, including a trading loan of $30,000.
When he failed to pay the loan amount, the account was blocked and the contact stopped responding.
Further investments made through other platforms
The complainant alleged that he was later contacted by another woman identifying herself as Rishika Sharma, who later appeared under the name Katha Banerjee from Kolkata.
She allegedly persuaded him to invest on forexflockltd.com, which was later changed to forexproltd.com. Dongara claimed he invested about ₹70 lakh on this platform but was unable to withdraw funds after the website disappeared.
In another instance, the victim said he accumulated $437,401 on a website called tresuryen66.com, which allegedly demanded ₹23 lakh as “Australian taxes” for withdrawal.
He also claimed that a person named Pooja proposed joint trading on the platforms invesws08.com and mvvrrc.com, and introduced him to a person identified as Joshua from the United Kingdom who offered trading signals for a commission.
Dongara said he paid about ₹15 lakh to Joshua through Indian bank accounts. However, the platform allegedly froze an account containing nearly $200,000.
Victim files complaint on cyber crime portal
The complainant said he transferred money to several bank accounts between June 2024 and January 2026 through IMPS, RTGS and UPI transactions from his ICICI Bank account in Madhapur.
After consulting experts, he realised that the trading platforms were allegedly fraudulent.
Dongara filed a complaint on the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal on March 2, 2026.
Police said further investigation is under way.
