A 48-year-old woman was duped of Rs 7 lakh by a cyber fraudster on the pretext of giving a good return on investment in overseas schemes. The woman had saved the money for her daughter’s education. Kharghar police registered an FIR under the IT Act and started the investigation.
The complainant, a homemaker, searched investment options online after her daughter’s plan for higher education out of the country was postponed and she had the money unused for the time being. She thought instead of keeping the money idle, she decided to invest in overseas funds for a good return.
While she was searching for an investment option overseas on the internet, she got a call from a person who identified himself as Mike and he runs FNX Market Net, an investment trading company based in the United Kingdom. He convinced her that money would be doubled if invested through him. He informed the complainant that many Indian citizens have made investments through him.
Police said that the cyber fraudster was successful in convincing the woman and asked her to download an app called ZEBPAY to transfer funds for the investment. The woman downloaded the app and added two bank accounts. She also transferred a total of Rs 7,07,000 from the two bank accounts. As per the fraudster, the money was invested in FIBIDO Technologies Limited.
After a month, the accused fraudster informed a good return was showing in her account opened with an investment company in Dollars and asked the complainant to keep the money for one more month to double the money. Later, the accused informed her that money would be deposited in her account but she had to pay transaction taxes to the RBI and asked to deposit a small amount of money. The complaint transferred that amount but Mike refused to give the money and stopped responding. Realising that she was cheated, she approached Kharghar police and registered a case under section 420 of IPC and 66 D of the IT Act.
