Blame it on the stock market

Delhi Police blames the stock market crash last year for the surge in the number of people cheated by investors promising high returns, reports Vijaita Singh.

Delhi Police blames the stock market crash last year for the surge in the number of people cheated by investors promising high returns.

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Most of these cheats had initially returned money to their investors when the market was healthy, but trouble started when the market crashed in November last year. In the past one month the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) has registered four cases where the number of people cheated through such fraudulent schemes ran into more than 100 each.

“We used to get such complaints every year. This year, the sheer number of people who have been cheated has increased manifold. In several cases we found the stock market crash was the reason for such mass-scale fraud. The companies that promised returns could not deliver and ran away with the investors’ money. Some hoped the market would recover but since it didn’t, they fled,” said a senior police officer on condition of anonymity.

The officer added the market crash should not be taken as “an excuse” but it was a telling factor contributing to the cases of cheating and fraud.