He mentioned that the victim and Ananya also held conversations through WhatsApp audio and video calls. She shared photographs with her family members to make the victim believe that she was genuine. According to the FIR, Ananya asked him to invest money in cryptocurrencies during a WhatsApp call with him on January 7, 2026, ensuring lucrative returns. The victim said she would talk about it in detail during their meeting in March. But Ananya told him to only invest Rs 10,000. Following his instructions, the victim downloaded the “Binance App” from the play store on his cell phone. He also sent him a link asking him to click on it, register and start trading by paying Rs 10,000.

After the victim initially made two payments of 10,000 rupees on January 7 and 8, the “Binance app” on his cell phone showed that he received 200 USDT (cryptocurrency stablecoin) in return.

Later, the victim received Rs 60,000 in his bank account by following certain procedures on the ‘Binance App’ as instructed by Ananya. So, he decided to invest more in cryptocurrencies. Ananya then made the victim join a WhatsApp group, where another person guided him on future investments.

Police said that till January 14, the victim transferred around Rs 21.63 lakh from his bank account through multiple online transactions. The fraudulent application showed that he had received around Rs 98 lakh in return. But, when the victim was asked to transfer Rs 29 lakh more to claim his winning, he became suspicious and realized that he had been duped, the FIR mentioned.

He submitted a complaint request to the Cyber ​​Police Station of Pune city ​​on January 18. After verification, an FIR was filed in this case on February 5. The police have booked the unidentified online fraudsters under sections 318 (4), 319 (2) and sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) Information Technology (IT) Act. Police are investigating phone numbers, Facebook accounts and bank accounts used by cyber fraudsters to commit the crime.