Navi Mumbai Cyber Crime: Retired Telecom Professional Duped Of Over ₹1.1 Crore In Online Trading Scam

Navi Mumbai: A 59-year-old retired telecom employee from Kharghar was swindled out of more than Rs 1.1 crore in a meticulously planned online trading scam. The fraud unfolded between April 9 and May 14 through a WhatsApp group and a fake investment platform, leading the police to register a cheating case on Monday.

Victim Was Added To Fake WhatsApp Group

The ordeal began on April 6, when the victim was unexpectedly added to a WhatsApp group that posed as a community of stock market experts and IPO advisors. The group had multiple administrators and participants pretending to be financial advisors, assistants and even a CEO of a trading company. These impostors offered seemingly legitimate advice and created a facade of authenticity.

According to a Hindustan Times report quoting the police, an assistant from the group first helped the victim open a brokerage account and directed him to a fraudulent website that mimicked a share trading platform. Initially, the man invested Rs 1 lakh and was allowed to withdraw Rs 8,000 as a profit. This partial payout built trust and encouraged him to invest more money, believing he was earning substantial returns.

Over the following weeks, the scammers manipulated the victim with fake dashboards that displayed huge profits and IPO allotments, eventually coaxing him into transferring large sums to various bank accounts. The scheme escalated when the website reflected an imaginary profit of Rs 4.6 crore and claimed an IPO allotment worth Rs 6.48 crore.

Eager to cash in, the victim was told he had to pay the difference between his profits and the IPO allotment amount to access his earnings. Realising this demand was illogical and likely fraudulent, he understood he had been duped.

He reported the scam on May 17 through the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal. Despite investing Rs 1.10 crore, the only amount he recovered was the initial Rs 8,000 withdrawal. The police registered a case under relevant sections of the Information Technology Act and the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, including Section 66D (cheating via computer resources) and other provisions related to impersonation and fraud.