CA duped of ₹22 lakhs in online share trading scam

A Mumbai CA was scammed of ₹22 lakh by fraudsters posing as an investment group, prompting police to register a case against unknown individuals.

MUMBAI: The North cyber police on Monday registered a case against unknown persons after a 52-year-old chartered accountant (CA) complained of being scammed into paying ₹22 lakh by cyber frauds who used the online share market investment modus to lure him.

CA duped of ₹22 lakhs in online share trading scam

According to the police, the victim, Ketan Solanki, was looking to invest his money online. He found an advertisement for the IIFL security company stock options in the month of April. The advertisement guaranteed profits to the buyer of the company’s shares and directed the user to click on a link. After Solanki clicked this link, he was added to a WhatsApp group named ‘555IIFL’ with a few members in it. The admin of the group, who went by Gaurav Sharma, advised Solanki to invest an amount of ₹29 lakh to gain profit. Solanki invested ₹29 lakh from April to June and saw he gained ₹64 lakh profit within two months. He decided to withdraw this, but Sharma told him that since the amount was large, Solanki had to pay a 25% commission to withdraw. After Solanki paid the amount, Sharma began asking for more money under the pretext of surcharge and other charges. Solanki began to sternly demand his money and was able to withdraw ₹7 lakh. When he asked for the initial amount, Sharma stopped responding.

Realizing he was cheated; Solanki approached cyber police and filed a written complaint. The North cyber police station registered an FIR against unknown persons under sections 66 (c) (identity theft) and 66 (d) (cheating by personation using computer resource) of the Information Technology Act and 318 (cheating) 61 (2) (conspiracy) 316 (breach of trust) of the Bhartiya Nyaya Sanhita. The police are tracing the bank accounts where Solanki made the transactions to.