Noida businessman loses lakhs in ‘romance-cum-investment’ cyber fraud

A 40-year-old Noida businessman has fallen victim to a months-long “romance-cum-investment” scam after being lured through a Facebook friend request and manipulated into transferring money to a fake online trading platform.

The fraud began in late June when the complainant accepted a friend request from a woman identifying herself as Sunaina Sharma. Their conversations soon shifted to WhatsApp, where she convinced him to invest in an alleged forex trading platform called Finalto, assuring daily returns of 15–20%. To build trust, she sent screenshots of trading dashboards and inflated profit statements.

On July 4, the businessman made his first deposit of ₹50,000. Over the next four months, he transferred money 17 times, often by borrowing funds, after being shown fabricated metrics that suggested his investments had grown to nearly ₹7.9 crore. But every attempt to withdraw funds was met with errors and delays. When he questioned the discrepancies, the woman blocked him on Facebook and WhatsApp.

Police say the platform was designed to mimic legitimate trading interfaces, making it difficult for victims to detect the fraud. Each deposit was instantly diverted into multiple bank accounts, complicating the investigation and potential recovery.

An FIR has been registered at the Noida Cyber Crime police station under Sections 318(4) and 319(2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, along with Section 66D of the IT Act for electronic impersonation. Cyber-forensics teams are now analysing chat records, social-media footprints and banking trails to trace the accused.

While the woman claimed to be from Jabalpur, officials believe the operation may involve a wider network. Police say such “romance-cum-investment” scams are on the rise, with fraudsters using polished profiles and professional-looking trading dashboards to deceive unsuspecting victims.