Online `women friends' dupe two men in separate investment scams

Mumbai, Jun 13 (PTI) In separate incidents, online women friends' cheated two city residents by persuading them to invest money in bogus schemes, police said on Friday. <br>In the first case, a 29-year-old manager with a private company who lives in Andheri received a marriage proposal on a matrimonial site fromMahi Agarwal'.
They started chatting online. The woman claimed that she was working in Malaysia with a firm dealing with cryptocurrency investment, said a police official.
At her insistence, the man opened an account on KuCoin exchange' and downloaded theBoost Base' app. Within a month, he invested Rs 32.88 lakh in cryptocurrency.
But when he tried to withdraw money on May 18, he was unable to do so.
On his complaint, a case was registered against unidentified persons at the West Region cyber police station.
In another incident, a 44-year-old man from Chandivali area received a friend request on Facebook on May 14 from one 'Priya Kumari'.
The woman, who claimed to be a fashion designer from Gurugram, chatted with him online and persuaded him to invest Rs 42 lakh in `share trading' through an app.
His so-called virtual account showed a balance of Rs 90 lakh, but when he tried to withdraw money, he was asked to deposit more money in the name of tax.
The man realised that it was a scam and approached police.
Probe is underway in both cases, the official said.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)