A 70-year-old chartered accountant from Madhya Pradesh, India, fell victim to an elaborate cryptocurrency investment fraud, losing approximately ₹21.06 crore ($2.2 million). The scam, classified as a ‘pig-butchering’ scheme, began with a simple social media message and escalated over weeks of fabricated trading gains displayed on a fake platform.
The victim, Ashok Vijayvargiya—a senior chartered accountant and Chief Returning Officer of the Madhya Pradesh Chamber of Commerce—was contacted with a casual greeting. After building trust, the fraudsters showed him early, fictional profits that prompted him to keep depositing funds. When he attempted to withdraw his supposed earnings, the operators blocked every payout with repeated excuses, revealing that the displayed returns were never real.
The Madhya Pradesh State Cyber Cell has filed a case against unknown suspects. DSP Sanjeev Nayan Sharma confirmed that investigators are tracing 20 bank accounts, three WhatsApp numbers, and the URL of the fraudulent trading portal, aiming to follow the IP trail and freeze linked accounts before further fund transfers.
A parallel case in Surat, Gujarat, followed the same playbook. Police arrested Divyesh Patel, a 29-year-old software engineer, after a victim lost over ₹72.73 lakh ($76,000) through a similar fake crypto trading platform promoted via Telegram. About ₹17 lakh of the stolen money landed in Patel’s IDBI Bank account, which he had rented out for a 2% commission. That account later appeared in eight separate cyber fraud complaints totaling an alleged ₹24.72 crore ($2.5 million) in losses. Patel was charged under the Information Technology Act and Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.
The case underscores the growing sophistication of pig-butchering scams, which have spread across multiple Indian states. Even highly educated professionals like Vijayvargiya are not immune. The FBI reported $11.4 billion in US crypto-related losses in 2025, a 22% rise, indicating a global problem. Police in Surat urged citizens to verify any unsolicited crypto or trading offers, block unfamiliar social media groups, and treat early returns as bait.
