A 69-year-old retired merchant navy employee has fallen prey to scammers and ended up losing whopping Rs7.16 crore in shares investment fraud.
According to the police, the complainant is a resident of Alibaug, Raigad. On November 25, he was added to a WhatsApp group in which information and tips about investing in shares were being discussed. When the complainant checked details about the administrator of the group it was in the name of a person who was known to him and hence he assumed it was a genuine WhatsApp group.
For tips regarding shares investment, the scammer on December 10 shared a link with the complainant and asked him to download a trading app through the shared link and create a login ID and password. Between December 10 and December 17, the man transferred Rs7.16 crore in eight online transactions in different beneficiary bank accounts provided by the scammer.
Later, when the complainant called on the other number of the person who he thought was the administrator of the group and was shocked to know that the said person had not created any WhatsApp group and neither did he advise anyone to invest in shares through him. Realising that he had been scammed, the complainant approached the cyber crime police and got an offence registered.
A case has been registered under sections 316 (criminal breach of trust), 318 (cheating) of Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and sections 66C (identity theft), 66D (cheating by personation by using computer resource) of the Information Technology Act.
