Retired doctor duped of ₹1.47 Cr by fraudsters using finance minister’s photo

According to the central cyber police, on October 1, the retired doctor came across an advertisement on social media which contained a photo of Sitharaman.

MUMBAI: In yet another instance of cyber frauds invoking the names of famous personalities in the finance world to dupe their victims, a retired doctor from Mahim was cheated of nearly ₹1.47 crore by frauds pretending to be affiliated to finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

Arrested computer hacker and cyber criminal with handcuffs, close up of hands (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

According to the central cyber police, on October 1, the retired doctor came across an advertisement on social media which contained a photo of Sitharaman. He mistook the post for a central government scheme which claimed it could turn a ₹21,000 investment into ₹60,000.

The police said the former doctor clicked the provided link, uploaded his details, and soon got a call from a woman who introduced herself as Meenakshi, one of the employees of the share trading platform.

Meenakshi then added the victim to several WhatsApp groups and asked them to download a stock trading application. On October 5, the complainant invested ₹1,000 and immediately saw a ₹108 profit. He saw several people posting screenshots on the WhatsApp groups about making significant profits from the app, the police added.

Unaware that the WhatsApp group members were frauds too, the man invested a total of ₹1.47 crore through the app which displayed his profits at nearly ₹6 crore. When the retired doctor decided to withdraw the money, he was asked to pay ₹90 lakh worth taxes and other fees.

“Suspecting something was wrong he approached a friend who told him he had been cheated,” said a police officer. Following his complaint, the police have registered a case under relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and the Information Technology Act for cheating and personation.