Mumbai: A 69-year-old former manager of State Bank of India (SBI), currently working as a recruitment manager with Kotak Life Insurance, lost Rs45,064 in a foreign currency investment scam. The fraudster lured her with promises of high returns and cheated her. She filed a complaint at the Vile Parle police station, following which, on August 20, the police registered a case against an unidentified person for cheating.
Andheri Woman Targeted by Facebook Foreign Currency Investment Session
According to the FIR, on August 16, at 8am, the complainant, Nilawati V, a resident of Andheri East, was watching a session on foreign currency investment on Facebook. In the session, the speaker claimed that investors could earn good returns by investing money in foreign currency.
Soon after the session, she received a call from an unknown number. The caller told her that their company would invest her money in foreign currency and she would receive good returns within six hours. He requested her to invest through them. Believing his claims, she agreed.
The next day, at 1.40pm, she received another call from an unknown number. The caller claimed to represent the same company, provided her with a number, and instructed her to transfer money from her SBI account via Google Pay. She followed the instructions and transferred Rs21,000. The recipient’s name appeared as Joseph Mehev.
Andheri Resident Loses Rs 24,064 in Online Investment Fraud
The following day, she received another call from an unknown number. When she told the caller that she had not received any returns, he claimed that the invested amount was insufficient and asked her to invest more. He then gave her another number and instructed her to transfer more money through GPay. Trusting him again, she transferred Rs24,064.
Thereafter, she began receiving continuous calls urging her to invest more money. However, she did not receive any returns, which made her suspicious. By then, she had already lost Rs45,064.
The police registered a case against an unidentified person under section 318(4) (cheating) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, along with relevant sections of the Information Technology Act.
