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Journalism of Courage
A 63-YEAR-OLD retired bank official in Pune lost a staggering Rs 2.33 crore in an online share trading scam, where cybercriminals not only manipulated him into sending money on the pretext of investments but also used his financial credentials to secure a Rs 92 lakh loan, which they further siphoned off into the fraud. He was made to believe that he made 11 crore in profit.
A First Information Report (FIR) in the case was registered at the Cyber Crime police station of Pune city earlier this week by the 63-year-old resident of Khadki who has retired from a public sector bank.
The cyber criminals made the victim use a fraudulent application on his phone that mimicked the name of a well known brokerage firm. The cyber criminals also misused the name of the company’s Chairman and Managing Director as the administrator of the fraudulent WhatsApp group the victim was added to.
As per the FIR, the complainant received a call from an unidentified number. The woman speaking on the phone offered him to join a share trading scheme that would give him huge returns on his investment.
After the complainant agreed, he was added to a WhatsApp group which misused the name of the brokerage firm. As the complainant searched the name and found that the name of the WhatsApp group administrator was also the name of the CMD of the company, he believed it to be trustworthy.
The administrators of the group kept sharing tutorials on share trading while other group members kept posting screenshots of high profits, making the scam more believable to him.
The complainant was made to share his personal and banking details through a registration form and was made to download a fraudulent share trading application.
On the WhatsApp group, fraudsters posing as experts and administrators were sharing details of stocks to invest into. The complainant was given details of fraudulent bank accounts to send money to. Each of his transfers was getting reflected on the fraudulent application along with corresponding high gains.
At one point, as the fraudsters began asking for more and more funds, and the victim was running out of money, the fraudsters misused the victim’s credentials and obtained a Rs 92 lakh loan in his name.
Over a period of seven days, the complainant was manipulated into making a total of 19 transactions totalling Rs 2.33 crore for which the corresponding gains shown on the application were Rs 11.72 crores.
He was made to send money to fraudulent mule accounts registered in banks at Rajkot and Ahmedabad in Gujarat, Ludhiana in Punjab, Muzaffarpur in Bihar, Indore in Madhya Pradesh, Mumbai and Hyderabad among others.
When the complainant sought to withdraw his profits, he was asked to pay 20 per cent tax on it. When he called the number of the company whose name was misused, he realized that he had been cheated. He subsequently approached the police and an FIR was registered at Cyber crime police station.
The Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad police have witnessed a worrying surge in online share trading fraud cases over the past one and half year.
Fraudsters employ a variety of baits, including trading tips, virtual lectures, mobile applications, and enticing promises of exorbitant returns.
Officials have also expressed concerns over citizens continuing to fall prey to these scams in spite of several advistories, sensitization campaigns and wide media coverage in this regard.
