3 of same family lose ₹10.64 lakh in online scam

MUMBAI: Police arrested Vaibhav Ganpat Thombare for cheating a family of ₹10.64 lakh in a stock market scam. He induced them to invest via fraudulent accounts.

MUMBAI: The police arrested a man on Friday for allegedly cheating three members of a family of ₹10.64 lakh by inducing them to invest in the stock market through him for good returns. Police said the accused, Vaibhav Ganpat Thombare, 38, collected money from them through many bank accounts, to which cyber frauds had access. He was produced before the court and is currently in judicial custody.

3 of same family lose ₹10.64 lakh in online scam

According to the police, the complainant is a 35-year-old man who resides with his family in the Motilal Nagar area of Goregaon West. His wife, one of the victims, had been receiving numerous messages on her mobile phone regarding stock market investments. Initially, she ignored them but one day her interest was piqued, and she expressed her interest to invest with her husband. He advised her to invest cautiously after verifying the details. Following this discussion two months ago, she transferred ₹2 lakh to the account Thombare provided, assuming she was investing in the stock market. She received quick returns, leading her to trust Thombare.

Subsequently, her brother-in-law and sister-in-law too decided to invest just like her, said an officer from Goregaon Police Station. At that time, Thombare added all three to a WhatsApp group of which he was the admin. He regularly sent messages containing information on developments in the stock market in the chat. One such message promised a doubling of investment, based on which all three transferred ₹10.64 lakh to a bank account that Thombare directed them to.

As they did not get immediate returns, they called Thombare and asked him what happened to the money. After this, he stopped responding to them. They never received their returns or the principal amount.

As soon as they suspected a scam, her husband filed a complaint at the Goregaon Police Station. Following the complaint, the police registered a case against the unknown cyber frauds under charges of fraud and other relevant sections of the Information Technology Act, 2000.

The officer said the police launched a special operation to arrest the accused and Thombare, who had been absconding for the last seven months, was taken into custody as a suspect. During interrogation, it came to light that he provided bank account details to cyber fraudsters. The defrauded amount was credited to bank accounts accessed by the cyber fraudsters.