Mumbai: A 36-year-old man working for a private company lost Rs 3.28 lakh in an investment fraud. The victim's wife came across a fraudulent investment scheme through a WhatsApp status message of a woman in her housing society. The victim was lured with promises of extra earnings if she could recruit more people to join the scheme and create a chain of investors.
According to the police, in April of this year, the victim's wife came across the investment scheme posted on the WhatsApp status message of an acquaintance. She inquired with the woman about the scheme, which claimed to offer opportunities to earn money from home. The woman shared a registration link with the victim and provided information about various investment plans.
Investment plan scheme
Under the investment plans, the primary scheme offered earnings of Rs 15 per day on a Rs 500 investment and Rs 1500 per day on a Rs 50000 investment. In the secondary investment plan, investors were promised Rs 26000 returns in two months for a Rs 5000 investment, one laptop and Rs 22000 in 16 days for investing Rs 15000, and Rs 1.29 lakh in 18 days for a Rs 32000 investment.
The victim then entered her details on the provided link, leading to the download of an app on her phone. She was also added to a WhatsApp group where other investors were members. The victim's family encouraged their relatives to join the group as well. Subsequently, the victim began investing in the schemes, and over three months, she invested Rs 3.28 lakh through online transactions, as per the police.
Out of the invested amount, the victim received Rs 1.20 lakh as returns. However, in July, the victim discovered that the investment app on his phone had become non-functional, and the individuals running the investment scheme had left the WhatsApp group. Realizing that he had been deceived, the victim reported the matter to the police and lodged a case on Saturday.
The police have filed a case under section 66D (cheating by personation by using computer resources) of the Information Technology Act.
