A potato and onion commission agent in Kanpur has allegedly lost ₹26.20 lakh to a cryptocurrency investment scam that hinged on a detail victims rarely question closely enough: a prior real-world acquaintance the fraudsters appear to have deliberately exploited to lower his guard before the scheme ever began.
An Old Acquaintance, Weaponised
The complainant, Ramgopal Sharma of Nayapurwa in TP Nagar, runs a commission business at Chakarpur Mandi. He had previously met one Ramnivas Sharma, a Hyderabad resident, during a visit to Agra some time earlier. Investigators believe the fraudsters deliberately used this pre-existing, entirely genuine acquaintance to establish credibility before the scam began, a tactic considerably more effective than approaching a complete stranger cold.
On January 26, 2026, Sharma received a WhatsApp call from an unknown number. The caller identified herself as Divya Sharma, claiming to be Ramnivas Sharma’s daughter, and said she had earned substantial profits through cryptocurrency trading, persuading Sharma that he too could achieve similar returns through her platform.
Small Deposits, Then Escalating Demands
Sharma was directed to download a mobile trading application and began investing modestly, first ₹10,000, then ₹20,500. Over the following weeks, he was repeatedly asked to transfer further amounts described as trading charges, processing fees and commissions, with the fraudsters assuring him each time that increasing his investment would only generate higher returns, a reassurance carefully timed to pre-empt any hesitation before it could take hold.
By the time the scheme unravelled, Sharma had transferred approximately ₹26.20 lakh across multiple bank accounts. The fraudulent platform then displayed an account balance of nearly ₹2.91 crore, a wildly inflated figure designed purely to visually convince him his investment had multiplied many times over and that walking away now, rather than continuing, would mean abandoning a fortune.
The Withdrawal That Never Came
When Sharma attempted to withdraw his supposed earnings, the fraudsters refused to release any funds unless he first deposited a further ₹58 lakh as a “commission.” When he questioned the demand and explained he could not raise such a sum, the suspects stopped responding to his calls and messages altogether, at which point he understood he had been defrauded and approached the Cyber Crime Cell and Juhi Police Station. A case has since been registered, and investigators are examining bank accounts, mobile numbers, digital transaction records, WhatsApp conversations and the fake trading platform itself, while working to identify those behind the accounts, SIM cards and digital wallets used in the operation.
Kanpur’s Recurring Crypto Fraud Problem
Sharma’s case adds to a striking run of similar frauds reported in Kanpur in recent months. Just weeks earlier, a Kanpur businessman and three others were separately defrauded of ₹26.90 lakh through near-identical promises of high investment returns, while Kanpur Police have also busted an organised gang, arresting six individuals, that specialised in withdrawing cyber fraud proceeds through bank accounts and converting them into cryptocurrency, uncovering transactions worth roughly ₹1.5 crore during that investigation alone.
In a separate, considerably larger case, Kanpur police last year arrested individuals accused of siphoning ₹2.52 crore from a single victim through a similar crypto investment ruse, with the syndicate reportedly routing funds as far as Cambodia. Investigators are now examining whether Sharma’s case is linked to a larger organised cybercrime network operating along similar lines within the city.
What Investigators and Experts Recommend
Renowned cybercrime expert and former IPS officer Prof Triveni Singh said fraudsters running fake cryptocurrency and investment schemes typically build trust by displaying fabricated profits or inflated account balances before demanding additional payments framed as taxes, commissions, verification charges or security deposits, precisely the sequence Sharma describes experiencing over several weeks. He advised investors to avoid investment offers from unknown individuals regardless of any apparent personal connection, to use only authorised and regulated investment platforms, and to independently verify the credentials of any company or opportunity before transferring money.
He also urged victims of cyber fraud to report incidents immediately through the National Cyber Crime Helpline 1930 or the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal, noting that prompt reporting significantly improves the chances of tracing and freezing stolen funds before they are moved beyond recovery.
