56-year-old pilot loses ₹3.16 crore in investment fraud

The pilot complainant also got his wife to download the same app. He realised he was scammed after realising he cannot withdraw any money

MUMBAI: A 56-year-old pilot of a commercial airline company allegedly lost ₹3.16 crore in an online share trading fraud after a cyber fraudster approached him on WhatsApp. A case was registered on Saturday against the cyber fraudsters for cheating.

56-year-old pilot loses ₹3.16 crore in investment fraud

According to the police, the complainant is a resident of Andheri (East). In his complaint, he said he was watching stock market videos on a YouTube channel and subscribed to Sanjiv Bhasin’s YouTube channel in May. Soon after this, he allegedly received a message from a woman who went by Anuprita Daga. She claimed to be an employee of SMC Global Securities and offered tips regarding investment in the stock market. The complainant agreed to invest following her advice and was added to a WhatsApp group named ‘VIP8- Smc Global Securities’. He saw there were 80 members in the group, sharing screenshots of the profits they had earned. Falling for this, the accused agreed to invest in the share market using a link Daga sent to download the SMC app.

The complainant purchased shares and IPO, as per Daga’s instructions, and transferred money to the different bank account numbers she provided. He lost ₹3,16,42,282. The complainant got his wife to download the same app. Once their profits together showed ₹15,84,32,456, he requested the app to withdraw. However, on July 11, he was asked to deposit more money. Finding this suspicious, he decided to verify the company and learnt it was fake. Following this, he approached the cyber police, and West Cyber police registered a case against the cyber frauds on Saturday.