Jabalpur (Madhya Pradesh): A 68-year-old man lost ₹2.93 crore in a scam while trying to earn more money through an online investment app.
The incident took place in the Omati police station area.
According to information, the retired Information Technology professional, Girish Kumar Sharma, was attracted by an ad for a share market investment app called "Share Khan Club" on Facebook. He clicked on the app and was promised huge returns on his investments. Sharma started interacting with a woman named Donna Anderson through WhatsApp, who convinced him to invest money in shares.
Anderson guided Sharma to download an application and register his details. She then encouraged him to buy shares and claimed that he would earn substantial profits. Sharma invested a significant amount of money in various accounts based on Anderson's advice, totaling ₹2.93 crore. However, when Sharma tried to withdraw his money, he was told that a 20% service fee was required first.
Sharma initially saw profits in his account but was unable to withdraw the funds. He was later informed that the value of his investments was shown to be around ₹34 crore, but he needed to pay more fees to access the money.
Realising he had been deceived, Sharma reported the scam to the police. The police have filed a case against Donna Anderson and another person, Abhiram Elsbarapu, under various sections of the Indian Penal Code and Information Technology Act. The investigation is ongoing.