Mumbai: A 55-year-old man, who works in a private company, lost more than Rs96 lakh in a span of just 18 days. Notably, the same group of scammers had recently duped a 58-year-old man of nearly Rs1.4 crore by promising him high returns on stock trading.
How the Nerul resident was duped
According to the police, the Nerul resident had come across information about an online trading techniques course. Between August 11 and 25, he bought 1,627 shares of ten different companies for Rs8.94 lakh and even received Rs20,000 returns in shares. Later, the complainant was added in a WhatsApp group meant for 'exclusive members' on the pretext of providing him 200% money doubling plans.
The man was then asked to create an account on a website suggested by the scammers. Between August 12 and 30, he transferred a total of Rs96.72 lakh in 30 transactions to their accounts. However, when the complainant tried to withdraw his earnings from the portal, he was directed to pay more money on different pretexts.
Realising the fraud, the aggrieved filed a police complaint and submitted names of the scammers who had introduced themselves as Anjali Sharma, Gloria, Aryan Gupta and Emma. He also provided their contacts and information related to their bank accounts. A case has been registered under sections 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention), 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) of the Indian Penal Code and section 66D (cheating by personation by using computer resource) of the Information Technology Act.
