Pune firm CEO lured by ‘Facebook friend’, loses Rs 42 lakh in share trading fraud

According to police, in the second week of November, he received a friend request from a woman on Facebook. He accepted the request and started communicating. Some time later, the ‘woman’ asked him if he was interested in share trading. She told him about a platform which she claimed was helping investors get high returns on stock trading. She made him log into a website and send Rs 40,000 to an account as his first investment. A while later, he was told he had earned a profit of USD 68 and the corresponding amount in rupees was transferred to his bank account.

The complainant believed it to be a legitimate platform and started sending large amounts to various accounts as instructed by platform administrators. However, in these instances, the ‘profits’ were sent to his account but were reflecting on his profile on the fraudulent trading platform.

Over a period of 35 days, the complainant ended up making a total of 20 transfers, totalling Rs 42.15 lakh. Against this, his profile on the fraudulent platform showed total earnings of Rs 3.3 crores. When the complainant showed intention of withdrawing money, he was told that he will have to pay a total of Rs 60 lakh tax for his total earnings. Realising that he had been cheated, he approached the police. After an initial inquiry, an FIR was registered at Chandan Nagar police station on Wednesday.

As per data on cases of share trading, 128 cyber fraud cases alone were registered with the cyber crime police station — which registers cases of frauds only above Rs 50 lakh, in which a staggering Rs 143 crores have been lost in 2024. This does not include the cases registered with other police stations.

Investigators said in the large number of online share trading frauds reported till now, the victims have been mainly targeted through social media advertisements, videos and reels. In very few cases, victims have been targeted through fake profiles on Facebook.

Many of these fraudulent posts misuse the images of well-known investment banking and stock trading platforms and faces of well-known stock trading trainers. Over the last 15 months, the Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad police have reported what their cyber investigators are calling an epidemic, a worrying surge in online share trading fraud cases. Fraudsters employ a variety of baits, including trading tips, virtual lectures, mobile applications, and enticing promises of exorbitant returns to lure victims.