Palwal businessman loses ₹1.35 crore in AI-driven cyber investment scam

Victim was lured into a fake US e-commerce partnership, made to use a phishing app showing dollar profits before being asked to pay “taxes”.

A 43-year-old businessman in Palwal allegedly lost ₹1.35 crore after a gang of cyber criminals lured him for partnership and investment in a USA-based e-commerce firm, police said on Tuesday.

Police say suspect posed as a woman, guided transfers to multiple accounts over six weeks and vanished when withdrawal was attempted. (File photo)

The victim — an engineer, owns a construction business — said he was contacted by a businesswoman in September this year. Almost after a fortnight, the woman started discussing stock market, investment, and e-commerce business with him, he told police. A plan to launch a new e-commerce firm was also talked about.

Police said that after taking the victim into confidence, the suspect made him transfer ₹1.35 crore in multiple bank accounts over the period of one and a half months on the pretext of investment in the firm.

A senior official of Palwal police said the victim was made to download a phishing application for keeping a tab on his investments, which was shown in US Dollars.

“He had started transacting money from October 3 as per directions by a suspect who probably was a male and used artificial intelligence to appear as a woman over the calls. This continued till November end when the victim decided to withdraw some part of his investment, which showed a hefty profit on the application,” the officer said.

Investigators said the victim was told he had earned a profit of ₹1.97 crore from his partnership and investment in the firm within one and half months. Later, when the suspect asked him to deposit an additional amount for taxes, he suspected foul play.

Naveen Kumar, station house officer of cybercrime police station in Palwal, said that the victim was trying to get his money back from several sources.

“However, after failing to get any success in the last one month, he finally submitted a written complaint on Sunday on the basis of which an FIR for cheating and impersonation was registered against unidentified suspects,” he said.

Kumar said that the are investigating the origin of the calls and trace the accused.