Maharashtra Cyber Fraud: 29-Year-Old Nashik Man Duped Of ₹32 Lakh In Telegram-Based Online Gold Investment Scam; Case Registered

Mumbai: A 29-year-old man fell prey to scammers and lost over Rs 32 lakh in online gold investment fraud. Earlier the scammers used to target victims by floating shares investment schemes.

According to the police, the complainant is a resident of Nashik. On May 29, the complainant received a message on his Telegram app account from a woman who offered him an opportunity to earn Rs 2,000 to Rs 3,000 daily. The woman told the complainant that he would have to invest in gold to earn huge profits.

The scammer then added the complainant's mobile number in a Telegram group where other members/investors were sharing their profit related experiences and were posting screenshots of their earnings. On June 02, the scammer shared two trading related links with the complainant and asked him to register through those links.

The complainant was then made to make an initial investment of Rs 8,000 by transferring the said amount in a bank account number provided by the scammer. Within 20 minutes, the complainant checked his trading profile and found that he had earned a profit of Rs 4,260 and Rs 12,460 got credited in his bank account within 24 hours. Finding the said trading platform genuine, the complainant decided to invest further.

Thereafter from June 03 till June 11, the scammers induced the complainant to transfer Rs 32.42 lakh through multiple online transactions in different beneficiary bank accounts.

However, on June 12 when the complainant tried to withdraw his earnings, his requests were repeatedly denied. He then confronted the scammer who asked him to pay more Rs 15 lakh to withdraw his earnings. Later the scammers also stopped responding to the messages of the complainant.

Having realised that he has been cheated, the complainant raised a complaint on the cyber crime helpline following which a case has been registered by cyber crime police on charges of 318 (cheating), 319 (cheating by personation) of Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and section 66D (cheating by personation by using computer resource) of the Information Technology Act.