A 40-year-old Malad resident was allegedly duped for Rs 9.55 lakh after believing the offer of lucrative returns on investment. To trap the man, the accused even gave a Rs 255 return on Rs 5,000 initial investment. In a bid to get bigger returns, the man invested Rs 9.55 lakh and lost his money as the fraudster went incommunicado.
In his complaint to the Malad police, the man, who works as a salesman, said that he had received WhatsApp messages from three unknown international numbers related to investment opportunities. Believing the claims made by the fraudster, the man decided to invest money.
Initially, he started off with Rs 5,000 and even received a return of Rs 255, which was the fraudster’s ploy to trick the target. The accused then told the complainant that if he would make a bigger investment then he would be entitled for hefty returns.
Falling into the trap, the man readily complied. In order to make the con look genuine, the accused used to regularly send screenshots of the profits made on the investments.
However, the accused had told the man that he would not be able to withdraw his invested money immediately. In a span of a few months, the complainant ended up investing Rs 9.55 lakh in 19 different transactions to different bank accounts provided by the accused.
Later, when he was in need of money and demanded to withdraw his investment, the accused stopped receiving his calls and finally went incommunicado. Having realised that he had been duped, the man approached the police and got a complaint lodged on Saturday.
The police have registered a case on charges of cheating by personation, cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property, identity theft and cheating by personation by using computer resources.
