A dentist has fallen prey to the ‘pig cutting’ scam involving a woman allegedly from Hong Kong who cheated him out of ₹81 lakh on the pretext of phenomenal returns on cryptocurrency investments.

the modus operandi of those involved in such a scam is to establish contact with potential victims through women via social media platforms or dating apps and, over a period of time, trick them into investing in fake schemes on the promise of high returns. Several cases linked to the scam, which is believed to have started in China in 2016, have been reported in countries including the United States and Singapore.

Central polling agencies could look into the scam, taking note of the case that was reported to Kotwali Police Station in Chhattisgarh by the dentist, who claims he was a victim of cryptocurrency fraud. As alleged, a Hong Kong woman named Anna Li started chatting with him on a social networking site called Vkontatke and later on WhatsApp as well.

Then the accused lured the victim under the guise of tripling his money by completing an online registration with a currency and stock trading app, opening an account on a cryptocurrency exchange and transferring crypto -currency through a website, which was found to be compromised. In due course, the victim invested around ₹81 lakh. When he informed the accused that he wanted to withdraw his month from the account, he was told that he would have to pay a tax on the withdrawal of foreign currency.

The victim paid the money, but he couldn’t withdraw it. He was then asked to send 5% of the total deposit amount to complete the process. The victim then realized that she was deceived. When he refused to pay more money, all funds were withdrawn by the accused, who controlled the account.