Hyderabad: A 62-year-old private employee from New Bhoiguda lost over ₹1.41 crore to fraudsters posing as stock market investment experts. Based on his complaint, the Hyderabad Cyber Crime police registered a case on Wednesday.The complainant told the police that in May 2026, he was added to WhatsApp trading groups without his consent by a woman who identified herself as Meera Iyer and claimed to be a stock market expert. Meera subsequently lured him into registering on a fraudulent website, a*ed-apply.com.Other fraudsters in the WhatsApp groups used the name and photographs of a senior executive of an institutional financial services company to project credibility. They encouraged the victim to transfer larger sums to different bank accounts via a fake application towards investment in the stock market.“By showing fictitious returns, they persuaded me to invest more. When the account balance was shown as ₹13 crore, I attempted to withdraw the funds, and the accused demanded ₹1.81 crore as commission to release the money. I became suspicious, contacted the actual financial services company’s office in Chennai directly, and realised I had been defrauded,” the complainant said.The victim lost more than ₹1.41 crore between May 6 and June 15. Based on his complaint, a case was registered under Sections 66C and 66D of the IT Act, and Sections 318(4) (cheating), 319(2) (cheating by personation), 336(3) (forgery for cheating), and 340(2) (using as genuine a forged document or electronic record) of the BNS.
