Navi Mumbai Cyber Fraud: 76-Year-Old Retired Engineer Loses ₹2.03 Crore In Online Share Market Scam In Vashi; Case Registered

Navi Mumbai: A 76-year-old retired engineer from Vashi was conned by unidentified men of Rs 2.03 crore by offering online share market trading. The complainant was promised high returns in the trading for which the senior citizen fell.

A resident of sector 7, the victim was contacted by the accused in the month of August via WhatsApp inquiring about investments in the stock market. They added him to a WhatsApp group called ‘M.Stock 582 Value Investment Portfolio’. The gang then began providing information about stock market trading and lured him with promises of high returns on online share market investments.

When the senior citizen expressed willingness to invest, the cyber gang instructed him to download an app called "M Stock Max" and pretended to create an account for him. They then convinced him to deposit money into various bank accounts under the pretext of investing in stock market trading. Following their instructions, the senior citizen started transferring money to the given bank accounts.

The cyber criminals showed him ‘profit’ on the app after he deposited the money and supposedly purchased shares. Over a month, the senior citizen transferred ₹2.03 crore to the cyber criminals across multiple bank accounts.

The app then displayed that the senior citizen had made a profit of over ₹3 crore. However, when he tried to withdraw some of the funds, he was unable to do so. The cyber gang told him he would need to pay additional taxes to withdraw his money. When the senior citizen expressed his inability to send more money, the accused started avoiding him.

“The case was registered after we investigated on the written application given to us by the complainant. The accused showed the ‘profit’ only digitally and physically the victim could not withdraw the amount claimed to be the profit and that is when he realised that he was being cheated,” a police officer from Vashi police station said.