A 69-year-old retired scientist has been duped of Rs2.08 crore in a fraudulent share market investment scheme.
According to the complaint, he was automatically added to a WhatsApp group where individuals named Pallavi Gandhi and Milan Vaishnav claimed to work for Upstox, a stock trading platform. They convinced him to invest money using a fake application, claiming it was linked to their company. The app displayed false profits on various transactions, said the scientist.
The duo fleeced him on various pretexts like charging 5% commission on the fake profits and tax deducted at source. Later, they told him that the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) had frozen his funds due to a typo in the account number. They sought a staggering Rs3.5 crore to resolve the issue.
The complainant got suspicious as he had not received any notice from the SEBI, said the police, adding that he neither got profits nor refunds. He later lodged a complaint on cyber helpline 1930.
A case has been registered against the scammers, including the holders of the accounts used for receiving the money.
