Mumbai: A 68-year-old man lost ₹19.75 lakh in online stock trading fraud. The scammers induced the man to pay money in different bank accounts and he could see his profits on his trading account. However, when the man was unable to withdraw his earnings, he realised he had been duped.
According to the police, the complainant, a resident of Thane, on August 7, received a WhatsApp message from an unknown person giving him guidance related to shares trading. The message sender also claimed to be associated with an America-based company having expertise in share trading.
Whatsapp used by cyberfrauds for the scam
The complainant was then included in a WhatsApp group created by the scammer which had 64 members. The fraudsters then induced the complainant to open a trading account with the American-based company.
On September 14, the man opened his trading account and from September 15 till October 11, the complainant was induced to put ₹19.75 lakh in various bank accounts provided by the scammers in eleven transactions. In his trading account, the victim could see his profits of ₹34.14 lakh, police said.
Victim could not withdraw money later
On October 27, the complainant made multiple requests on the company’s app to withdraw ₹5 lakh, however, his request could not be processed. When he confronted the scammers about this, they told him to pay more money. The victim got suspicious and refused to pay the money.
Later, he was shocked to know that he has been removed from the WhatsApp group. Having learnt that he had been duped, he approached the police and got a case registered in the matter on Sunday. A case has been registered under sections 66C (identity theft), 66D (cheating by personation by using computer resource) of the Information Technology Act.
FPJ Cyber Secure | FPJ
