43-year-old entrepreneur duped of ₹2.29 cr in an investment fraud

“The frauds contacted him and introduced themselves as representatives of a reputed financial advisory platform. They provided a multi-phase trading scheme, assuring impressive returns,” the police said.

NAVI MUMBAI: A 43-year-old woman entrepreneur from Belapur was duped of ₹2.29 crore in an online trading fraud between April and July this year. The frauds introduced themselves as the representatives of a popular financial advisory firm, asked her to download a trading app and invest money through it, said a police officer.

43-year-old entrepreneur duped of ₹2.29 cr in an investment fraud

According to the police, the victim’s husband was added to a WhatsApp group named ‘VIP 1 Equity Exchange’, where tips for making profits on investments were shared. On seeing that the members of the group were making huge profits, he also wanted to invest and expressed interest.

“The frauds contacted him and introduced themselves as representatives of a reputed financial advisory platform. They provided a multi-phase trading scheme, assuring impressive returns,” said the investigating officer of the case.

Under their guidance, the couple downloaded a trading application named ‘impv pro’, created a trading account in the woman’s name, and started investing, said the officer. Between April and July this year, the woman transferred ₹2.29 crore to various bank accounts, details of which were shared by the frauds.

The fraud came to light when she wanted to invest in an IPO and was asked to pay an additional charge of ₹4.18 crore. On sharing this with the family, she was told that this could be a fraud. “She then called the customer care and discovered that the company does not operate through any mobile application and realised that she was defrauded,” he added.

The woman then approached the police on Sunday. Based on her complaint, a case was registered against the unidentified individuals under sections 318(4) (cheating), 319(2) (cheating by personation), 336(2) (forgery), 3(5) (common intention) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and section 66(D) (cheating by personation) of the Information Technology Act.