Cyber frauds dupe diamond trader of ₹60 lakh
A diamond trader was duped of ₹60 lakh by cyber fraudsters posing as brokerage reps, who misused his documents to transfer and sell his shares.
MUMBAI: A 35-year-old diamond trader was duped of ₹60 lakh by cyber frauds after they promised to help him in the online process of submitting documents for dematerializing his 150 shares in a firm which had shut. The accused allegedly transferred all his equity to another demat account using his credentials, sold the shares and misappropriated the proceeds.
The complainant, K Shah, a diamond broker who lives in Kandivali West, claimed that he had demat account with ‘Angel One’ broking firm and had bought 150 equity shares of an automobile firm that shut down a few months ago.
The police said the complainant had been calling the firm’s customer care number since December 2023 and was directed to submit his documents online to encash his shares based on the last traded price. However, he could not do the process online and therefore sent all the documents through a courier.
Later, on August 13, the complainant received a call, where the caller identified himself as the representative of the brokerage firm. After promising to help him with the online process to sell his shares, the caller asked him to send all relevant documents. The complainant trusted the person and shared all his documents like his Aadhar card, and PAN card and shared the OTPs that he received.
The next day, he received a message that his email ID linked with his demat account was changed. He further got messages that his login ID for the demat account was also changed. On August 15, the complainant received a message from Central Depository Services Ltd (CDSL) in which information was given regarding adding offline transfer beneficiaries. He accepted the request clicked the link that came with the message and entered the OTP.
He later received messages from CDSL that all his shares were transferred from his demat account to another demat account. He immediately sent an email saying that he did not initiate any request to transfer his shares and to stop the process of his shares in another Demat account, as mentioned in the FIR. On August 20, he got a call promising that his shares would be credited back in his demat account as it happened with some error.
The complainant later found that the mobile number of the person who he had been contacting was switched off. He then approached the North cyber police and registered a case. The case has been registered under several sections of the BNS and IT Act and further investigation is going on, said a police officer.