Noida: A 58-year-old man in Noida Sector 52 was allegedly duped to the tune of ₹85.60 lakh in a share market trading related fraud from June 29 to August 26, police said, adding a case of cheating was registered at the Cybercrime Branch police station.
Police identified the victim as a senior Indian Coast Guard officer.
Police said he got trapped after clicking on a trading pop-up that appeared on his social media account, leading to him becoming a member of two WhatsApp groups.
After a brief interaction, the victim started investing in the share market via an application provided by the suspects. “Initially, few demat stocks and institutional stocks were suggested, in which I did minor trading,” the victim alleged in the FIR.
On July 5 and 19, two people approached him to make him a member of a high net worth individual (HNW) account, police said, adding that later he received a fake certificate of a stock market broking firm with a HNW activation code.
Following the letter issuance, the suspect allowed him to invest in various trading schemes like institutional stocks, over-the-counter (OTC) trading, and initial public offerings (IPOs). “Two suspects used to teach in the evening through WhatsApp messages related to various theories, methodology, and technicalities of stock trading every day around 8 pm or 9 pm for about one hour,” reads the FIR.
Police said in multiple transactions, the victim transferred ₹85.60 lakh, and the application provided by suspects showed a profit of ₹5.5 crore. “When he attempted to withdraw ₹1 crore from his profit, he was asked to withdraw the entire profit at once. On applying to withdraw it, he was directed to pay ₹75.45 lakh more as a 15 per cent commission,” said Cybercrime Branch’s station house officer Ranjeet Singh, adding that this demand made him realise he had been duped.
A case of cheating and cheating by personation of the BNS and IT Act was registered at the Cybercrime branch police station, and further investigation is underway, said police.