Fake Nirmala Sitharaman Ad lures Hyderabad techie into Rs 27.6 lakh investment scam
HYDERABAD: A 37-year-old software worker lost Rs 27.62 lakh in an online investment scam. It started when she clicked on a Facebook ad with Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. Cybercriminals made a fake trading website and kept asking her to pay more “fees” to withdraw her money, the police said.
The victim, who lives in Serilingampally, saw the ad on June 10, 2026, and thought it was real. She got a call from another country and paid Rs 16,023 to sign up. She was then added to a WhatsApp group called “socialventure-capitalist.com,” which looked like an investment website.
Priyanshu Singh, who said he was a Senior Financial Consultant, called her from +44 7836 252193 and helped her use the website. On June 16, she took out $7, and Rs 661.77 was added to her bank account. This made her trust the scam even more.
Escalating demands and false promises
Singh told her to pay Rs 1,00,000 to start trading, and she did. He showed her big profits and said she could take out $71,000. But when she tried to withdraw money on June 26, nothing came. Instead, she got fake documents that looked like they were from Barclays Bank. They said she needed to pay a “CAPITAL GATEWAY TAX” of Rs 9,00,000 to get her money.
Between June 30 and July 8, she sent Rs 8,00,000 to different bank accounts, following Singh’s directions. Another scammer, Vishal Mishra, said he was Head of Finance. He sent her a fake “BARCLAYS DECLARATION FORM” and asked for Rs 8,47,000 as a refundable deposit. She paid on July 13 after sending copies of her Aadhaar and PAN cards.
Mishra then said JP Morgan would charge Rs 10,00,000 as a currency conversion fee. In a group call, Singh and Mishra told her this was the last step. She paid the money on July 20. After that, someone who claimed to be Rohit Mahajan from Barclays Bank in the Netherlands asked for Rs 8,00,000 for “fund insurance,” but later said she could pay Rs 6,00,000.
In the end, the victim realized it was a scam and called the National Cyber Crime Helpline (1930). From June 10 to July 20, she had sent Rs 27,63,023 and got back only Rs 661. The Cyberabad Cybercrime police registered a First Information Report (FIR) under cybercrime and BNS.
