A 53-year-old woman from Kharghar lost her house and her retired father’s entire savings after being duped in a cryptocurrency fraud, with losses amounting to Rs1.03 crore. Police have arrested 34-year-old Zuber Shamshad Khan, a resident of Mumbra, in connection with the case.
According to authorities, Khan first contacted the victim, Dipali Patil, through a Facebook advertisement in 2020. He convinced her that she could earn high returns by investing in cryptocurrency. Khan instructed Patil to download two mobile applications and guided her to invest in crypto tokens via these fraudulent platforms.
Between October 3, 2020, and March 25, 2025, Patil, lured by promises of high profits, sold her house and invested her father’s retirement savings. When she realized the scam, Khan returned only Rs3.51 lakh and demanded an additional Rs26.70 lakh to release the remaining amount.
Police, acting on a tip-off that Khan was in Mumbra, arrested him and recovered a mobile phone containing chat evidence between the accused and the victim.
An FIR was filed against Khan under the Information Technology Act sections 66(C) (identity theft) and 66(D) (cheating by impersonation), along with various sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).
In a similar incident, a retired engineer from Nerul lost Rs2.2 crore in an online trading fraud. Fraudsters impersonating representatives of a reputed financial firm convinced him to invest in the stock market. A woman claiming to be a financial mentor even showed a fake SEBI registration certificate to gain his trust, police said.
