Indore (Madhya Pradesh): A man was allegedly duped of Rs 21.35 lakh by cyber fraudsters on the pretext of high returns through stock market investments within the Gandhi Nagar police station limits.
The victim was allegedly threatened with the freezing of his trading account before being completely blocked by the scammers.
According to the police, complainant Mahesh Babu Gupta, a resident of Singapore Lifestyle-2, said the incident occurred when he clicked on a company's advertisement link on Facebook.
Upon clicking, he was automatically added to a WhatsApp group named "Circle of Trust".
In the group, the admins—identified as Rahul, Keshav and others—regularly shared stock market investment tips and advice promising lucrative returns.
Lured by these promises, Gupta was convinced to open a trading account through an application called Anantium Private Equity.
Gupta was instructed to apply for a minimum of 10,000 shares, with the assurance that he would be allotted only 2% to 3% of the total bid.
However, the fraudsters allegedly manipulated the platform to show that he had been allotted 2,230 shares and abruptly demanded a payment of Rs 31.22 lakh.
When Gupta expressed his inability to pay such a large amount, the suspects allegedly threatened to freeze his trading account, bar him from future trading and permanently forfeit the money he had already invested.
Fearing the loss of his initial investment, Gupta withdrew his life savings and transferred a total of Rs 21.35 lakh to various bank accounts provided by the accused.
The fraud came to light when Gupta saw the 2,230 shares in his virtual portfolio and decided to sell them.
He then submitted a withdrawal request for Rs 5 lakh, but the company rejected it, claiming he must first pay 20% of his total income as a processing fee before any funds could be released. The police registered a case and further investigation is underway.
