Navi Mumbai: A 53-year-old woman from Kharghar has lost ₹1.03 crore—including her home and her retired father’s savings—in a cryptocurrency scam after being lured via a Facebook advertisement. The Navi Mumbai Cyber Police have arrested Zuber Shamshad Khan, a 34-year-old Mumbra resident, in connection with the case.
According to police officials, Khan came in contact with Dipali Patil in 2020 through a Facebook ad that promised large profits from cryptocurrency trading. He instructed her to download two mobile apps and invest in crypto tokens through them—both of which turned out to be fraudulent.
Driven by the dream of quick returns, Patil began investing heavily from October 3, 2020, to March 25, 2025, going as far as selling her house and using her father’s retirement funds. When she later realised she had been duped and demanded her money back, Khan only returned ₹3.51 lakh. Worse still, he demanded an additional ₹26.70 lakh to “release” the rest of the funds, police said.
On receiving a tip-off about Khan’s location, the cyber police arrested him in Mumbra on Wednesday. “We have also recovered a mobile phone that contains evidence of the chats between the accused and the victim,” said an investigating officer.
Based on Patil’s complaint, police have registered an FIR. The accused has been booked under multiple sections, including:
- Sections 66(C) and 66(D) of the Information Technology Act (identity theft and cheating by impersonation),
- Sections 319(2), 318(4), 336(3), and 3(5) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), pertaining to cheating, delivery of property, and jurisdiction of crimes committed abroad.
Another Case: Nerul Engineer Loses ₹2.2 Crore
In a similar case, a retired engineer from Nerul was duped of ₹2.2 crore in an online trading scam. Fraudsters, posing as representatives of a reputed financial firm, lured him into investing in the stock market using a fake app and fake SEBI registration documents. A woman, claiming to be a financial mentor, guided him through WhatsApp groups.
The victim was promised massive profits, and when he tried to withdraw a reported ₹15.6 crore profit, the fraudsters demanded a “platform fee” of ₹2.2 crore—at which point he realised the fraud.
A case was registered by Navi Mumbai cyber police on June 4 under relevant sections of the IT Act and BNS, and investigations are underway to trace the perpetrators.