79-year-old Kandivali resident duped of ₹2.72 cr

A 79-year-old man lost ₹2.72 crore to cyber fraudsters posing as brokerage firm executives, before Rajasthan police intervened and blocked his account.

MUMBAI: A 79-year-old retired senior citizen allegedly lost around ₹2.72 crore to cyber frauds, who claimed to be executives of a reputed brokerage firm dealing in stock, currency, and future trading in commodity. He realised he was being cheated after Rajasthan police were alerted by his transactions and had his bank block his account to stop him from sending more money to the frauds. The cyber police on Friday registered a case based on his complaint.

79-year-old Kandivali resident duped of ₹2.72 cr

The senior citizen resides in a bungalow in Charkop area, Kandivali. He used to work as a chemist before retirement and now earns his living through share-trading. The police said the frauds added the retired man to a WhatsApp group in July 2024. The group name was that of a reputed trading platform, to gain the victim’s trust, but unrelated to it. The group members shared screenshots of profits they made by using the tips sent on the group.

One of the frauds, who went by Kabir Khanna, allegedly sent the elderly man a private message in September, saying the group was selected in the Global Capital Management Competition being held in USA, and being a member with them now would give him huge profits. Khanna said he will be getting lot of internal information regarding stocks, that there will be prizes for the person who invested the most with him. He also made a special WhatsApp group for the same,” said a cyber police officer. Khanna encouraged him to become a member through the institutional group link sent in the group and shared several numbers of his ‘personal assistants’ who can guide him. He followed their instructions, downloaded a mobile application and opened a trading account in it.

The complainant was then asked to invest in various stocks and Initial Public Offerings (IPO), which they said were ‘upper circuit’ stocks, i.e. maximum price a stock can reach on a given day. To invest here, the frauds offered him a loan of ₹1.5 crore. However, his account on the mobile application showed deposits of ₹28 crore on the fake loan application. To withdraw this, he was asked to pay more under the pretext of various fees and taxes. “He paid this and more to the frauds, transferring a total of ₹2.72 crore to the bank accounts they provided. One month later, the complainant learnt that his bank account was blocked. He visited the bank to find out the reason and was shown a notice they were sent by the Udaipur police in Rajasthan,” said the police officer. The bank officials asked him to visit the nearest police station. So, he spoke to a police officer from Kandivali police station and was told they had they learnt he was sending huge money to cyber frauds. His bank account was blocked to stop him from sending more money to them.

“The fraud has taken place from July 2024 to September 2024, he was fortunate the Rajasthan police had come to know about the fraud and blocked his bank account, or he would have sent more money to them,” the officer said.

The cyber police registered a case on Friday against unknown persons under sections 318 (cheating), 319 (cheating by personation), 336 (forgery), 336 (forgery of valuable documents and using forged documents as genuine) of the Bhartiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023.