Online fraud: Bhadrachalam man duped of Rs 1.48 crore by his Facebook friend

A Bhadrachalam man was allegedly cheated of Rs 1.48 crore by a woman he befriended on Facebook, who lured him into a fake online trading scheme. After paying money towards “taxes”, the victim realised the scam and lodged a police complaint.

Kothagudem: In a case of an online friendship turning into a fraud, a woman duped a Bhadrachalam man of Rs. 1.48 crore on the pretext of online trading and investment.

According to police, the man, Lakavath Venkateshwarlu, struck up an acquaintance with a woman, Sharanya Reddy on Facebook. After a few days of online chatting, the woman told the man that her investment in online trading earned her a huge amount of money and advised him to do the same.

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She made Venkateshwarlu make an initial investment of Rs 32 lakh and showed Rs 2.40 crore credited into his trading account. He tried to withdraw the money but failed. When he conveyed the same to Sharanya Reddy she told him that since the money in his account was foreign currency he had to pay some money towards taxes to withdraw it.

He followed her advice and paid Rs 1.16 crore in phases. Later the woman stopped responding to the calls of Venkateshwarlu who then understood that he was cheated by her. Based on his complaint a case was registered and started investigation into the case, said the town CI, Nagaraju.