Man loses `22 lakh to scammers in stock trading fraud
In a recent stock trading investment fraud, a 55-year-old man lost Rs21.96 lakh to scammers in around 30 transactions within two months.
According to the police, the complainant is a resident of New Panvel. The incident dates back to January when the man came across a link related to stock trading on the internet and clicked on it, after which he was directed to a Telegram group. The messages on the group claimed that investors would get lucrative returns on investments in stock trading.
The complainant then downloaded a stock trading app on his phone on the scammers’ instructions, investing Rs21.96 lakh from January 15 till March 26, in 30 online transactions. However, when he decided to withdraw his earnings, he was asked to pay more money, realising that he had been duped.
The complainant then approached the police, and got an offence registered in the matter, providing details of the mobile numbers used by the scammers and links that they shared along with the beneficiary account details to the police.
The police have registered a case under section 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) of the Indian Penal Code and 66C (punishment for identity theft), 66D (cheating by personation by using computer resources) of the Information Technology Act.
The Central government recently issued an alert for citizens to warn them about scammers duping people using fake trading apps by inducing them to invest in stocks, promising large profits and sharing fake profit screenshots.
In February this year, the Cyber Crime Police of Mumbai had registered at least 11 cases in which scammers had duped citizens collectively of Rs4.40 crore.
The complainant downloaded a stock trading app on his phone on the scammers’ instructions