Hyderabad man duped of Rs 20.39L in crypto scam, recovers Rs 2.8L

Hyderabad: A Hyderabad man who was duped in an online investment scam has received a partial cryptocurrency refund of 3,125.42 USDT, equivalent to approximately Rs 2.68 lakh, directly into his wallet.

According to reports, the victim was added to a fake WhatsApp group where fraudsters lured him into cryptocurrency trading through third-party apps and fraudulent links promising high returns. He ended up transferring 24,275.8 USDT (approximately Rs 20.39 lakh) to various private wallets.

Upon realizing the fraud, the victim approached cybercrime police, who traced a portion of the defrauded funds to a wallet linked to a Seychelles-based cryptocurrency exchange. After receiving the suspect’s wallet and KYC details from the exchange, police obtained a court order to freeze and later refund the amount.

This is the first-of-its-kind case in Cyberabad where cryptocurrency lost in a cyber fraud has been successfully refunded to the victim.