E-Paper
Retired IAF officer duped of ₹97 lakh in fraudulent share trading scheme
Manipulated by cyber fraudsters through a fake trading app, he was pressured into making large transfers before realizing he was scammed.
In a case of digital trading fraud, a retired Indian Air Force officer lost around ₹97 lakh, in which he was compelled to take loans of ₹55 lakh to continue making online payments.
The 53-year-old officer, a resident of Pune, was allegedly made to register on a fraudulent share trading app, where his earnings was projected to reach ₹4.4 crore. An FIR has been registered in the case on the complaint of the IAF veteran.
According to the complaint, the officer was manipulated into making 18 large transfers to mule accounts over a period of 40 days during which he was made to believe that he was investing in a trusted share trading platform.
However, he was conned by cyber fraudsters posing as share trading experts and the money was transferred into several accounts linked to fraudsters.
What led to such a giant fraud?
After clicking on a fraudulent link in an advertisement of a share trading platform, the complainant was added to a WhatsApp group and was sent the link to download a fake share trading app.
Through this app, fraudsters, who posed as its administrators and stock market experts demanded his personal and financial details, before what they claimed as share trading tips.
The fraudster started giving him fake share investment input and along with it an account number to send the money to.
Every financial transaction made by the IAF officer then started reflecting on the fake share trading app, along with a notably high corresponding return.
These fake returns, which were in multifolds of the money sent, kept luring him to send more and more money, the report read.
After the victim exhausted a huge portion of his savings, the fraudsters told him that there was an investment opportunity in an initial public offering (IPO). When he told them that he had exhausted his funds, the they manipulated and pressured him into taking loans saying he would lose his earnings.
He was compelled to take a personal loan of ₹30 lakh and another gold loan of ₹25 lakh following which he continued making payments to mule accounts, which were reportedly located at various locations including Maharashtra's Satara, West Bengal's Kolkata and 24 Parganas, Telengana's Hyderabad, Assam's Barpeta, Kerala's Palakkad, Madhya Pradesh's Indore and Dhar and Odisha's Khordha among others.
When the veteran officer wanted to withdraw the ₹4.4 crore, that was reflected on the app, he was asked to pay 20 per cent of his total earnings as tax.
It was at this point, he got a hint that he might had been cheated and approached the cyber crime police station to register the FIR.
