Share trading cyber fraud: Pune woman falls for ‘threat of SEBI action, travel ban’, loses Rs 88 lakh

An FIR in the case has been registered at Alankar police station by the woman who is a resident of Erandwane. While surfing Instagram in December last year, she came across an advertisement of a stock trading platform that was misusing the name of a California based venture capital fund. After clicking the link, she was contacted by a woman who asked her to fill up a form. The woman said the complainant was asked to undergo training in share trading, and that some “highly secret stock trading tips” will be shared with her.

She was asked to create a profile on a phone based platform and was added to a WhatsApp group where admins and other members were discussing share trading tips and high profits. The complainant then started transferring money to some accounts as instructed by the callers, and those ‘investments’ started reflecting on the application with corresponding high profits. She was told that on some investments she would get 200 per cent returns.

At one point she was asked to invest Rs 26 lakh. When she expressed an inability to do so, she was threatened with SEBI action, and her family would be banned from international travel and further prospects of her children to study abroad would be lost. To continue making payments, she took a loan of Rs 18 lakh and further mortgaged her jewelry for Rs 10 lakh. Against a total investment of Rs 88 lakh over three weeks, the platform was showing her a total profit of Rs 1.4 crores.

When the complainant tried withdrawing money, she was asked to pay tax of Rs 17 lakh. At this point, the complainant made more inquiries and internet searches about such schemes only to find out that she had been cheated. She approached the police and an FIR was registered following preliminary verification of the complaint.

In what cyber investigators are calling an epidemic in online share trading fraud cases, cyber criminals are using baits such as trading tips, online lectures, phone based apps and promises of very high returns. More than 150 people have lost over Rs 30 crore since January. SEBI’s advisory in this regard on February 26 highlighted the tactics of fraudsters, including posing as SEBI–registered entities and exploiting social media to promote fraud trading schemes.