Mumbai: Trusting the share market investment scheme which promised huge returns proved costly for a family. The 27-year-old complainant was informed by his Andheri based sister about a WhatsApp group that was instrumental in providing guidance on investing in share market. The complainant and his father too then began investing and ended up losing Rs 13.42 lakh to scammers.
According to the police, the complainant is a resident of Bhandara district. In June this year, the complainant was informed by his sister who stays in Mumbai about a WhatsApp group that provides guidance and tips on share market investment and IPOs. She had also shared the mobile number of the administrator of the said group with the complainant.
The complainant then contacted the administrator of the WhatsApp group and as per his instructions, the complainant shared his bank account and Pan card details for opening a trading account. The victim and his father then downloaded a trading app on their phones and based on the instructions of the scammers, who posed as share market experts, began investing through the app.
On July 09, the complainant invested Rs 25000 and after five days he could see a jump of 125 percent on his investment on the trading app he had installed in his phone. Trusting this investment scheme, from July 09 and July 26, the complainant and his family members transferred Rs 13.42 lakh in 20 online transactions in different beneficiary bank accounts as per the instructions of the scammers.
However, when the victim tried to withdraw his earnings from the app, his requests were denied. He then contacted the scammers, who asked him to pay more money for various taxes and later even stopped answering phone calls of the complainant. Having realised that he had been duped, the victim then approached the police and got an offence registered in the matter.
The victim has provided details of the contact number of the scammers, the link of the trading app and beneficiary bank account details with the police in his complaint. The police has registered a case under section 318 (cheating) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and section 66D (cheating by personation by using computer resource) of the Information Technology Act.
