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Mumbai: Woman loses ₹7.87 Cr in online investment fraud
The app showed big profits at first, but soon she faced losses. When she tried to withdraw, the accused demanded 10% of the amount to release the funds.
MUMBAI: A 62-year-old Pali Hill resident lost ₹7.87 crore on a fraudulent trading app assuring high returns on investments. A case was registered on Friday against a woman named Priya Sharma and her identified accomplices for allegedly posing as the representatives of a popular trading firm and luring the woman to transfer the amount to various bank accounts in the name of investments, said a police officer.
According to the police, the accused approached the woman on WhatsApp in June this year, introducing herself as the assistant of the chief investment officer of a popular trading firm. Sharma added the woman to a WhatsApp group where tips for making profits on share market investments were shared. After seeing that the members of the group were making huge profits, the woman also wanted to invest, said a police officer. “They told her to invest in shares and IPOs via a mobile application in the name of the trading firm,” he added.
The woman transferred ₹7.87 crore over 18 transactions to various bank accounts, details of which were shared by the accused, the officer said.
The police said that the app reflected huge profits initially but a few days later, she started to incur losses. When she wanted to withdraw the amount to prevent further loss, the accused asked her to invest 10% of the amount to withdraw the funds. Suspecting foul play, she called the customer care of the company and learnt there were no investments made by her.
Realising that she had been cheated, she recently approached the police on Friday. Based on her complaint, the police registered a case under sections 318 (cheating), 319 (cheating by personation), 61 (criminal conspiracy), 336 (forgery), 338 (forgery of valuable securities) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and relevant sections of the Information Technology Act.
