Retired RBI manager loses ₹4.40 crore in online trading fraud
A retired RBI manager in Navi Mumbai lost ₹4.40 crore of her life savings to online scamsters posing as stock market experts.
NAVI MUMBAI: A 67-year-old woman, who retired from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) as a manager, was duped of her entire life savings after getting lured into investing in stocks by frauds masquerading as market experts. The Kharghar resident lost ₹4.40 crore to the online scamsters.
The scam began towards the last week of April this year, when the retired manager clicked on an advertisement link of a company that she had zeroed in on for investing in stocks, assuming it to be genuine based purely on google reviews. From there on, the manager was added to a WhatsApp group that went by the name - Advent International D-875 - which held regular discussions and analyses on stocks. Observing the conversations, she was further convinced about the authenticity of the group, and on May 13, she conveyed her desire to dabble in stocks.
A link was sent to the manager through a web portal, to be filled in with personal details like aadhar card and mobile number. The manager was then provided with a user ID and password. Shares were purchased and sold between May 14 and July 9.
A total of 47 transactions were made amounting to ₹4.40 crore. “The modus operandi of the scam was to gain the person’s trust by letting them gain some profit from the initial investments. The manager was able to withdraw some amount of the profits as well, which made her go further into the scam,” a Kharghar police officer said.
The woman’s trouble began when she attempted to withdraw the huge profits earned following the numerous investments. On the web portal, it showed that these profits were to the tune of ₹15.73 crore. “She had earlier succeeded in withdrawing ₹5.93 lakh. On June 25, an attempt to withdraw ₹5 crore was made, which failed,” said the officer.
The customer care of the ‘trading company’ was informed. As per the customer care executives, the manager had violated SEBI rules by trying to withdraw such a large amount and was now required to pay penalty, and failing to do so will cause her to lose the entire profit earned, said the police officer.
The penalty was the total sum the manager had invested. She finally realised that she had been duped. On July 10, she lodged a complaint, based on which the police registered an FIR against the unknown frauds.