Hyderabad: A 51-year-old private employee from KPHB Colony fell victim to an online forex trading scam, losing over 1 crore. Following his complaint, the Cyberabad cybercrime police registered a case on Thursday. The victim, who lives in KPHB IX Phase, alleged in his complaint that, on March 9, he received a message on the Telegram app from a fraudster who claimed to be called Ronald Browne. The accused claimed to be associated with a London-based stock trading company and offered expert guidance in forex trading. The complainant was persuaded to open trading accounts on the websites ‘m.roewatson.com’ and ‘m.ftmohub.cc’ and invest money, with the promise of earning over $1,000 a day. “I was later contacted by two women, Nisha and Harini, who guided me about trades and repeatedly urged me to invest larger sums for higher returns,” said the victim.Police said that the victim was instructed to deposit Indian currency into bank accounts shared via Telegram, with assurances that the money would be converted into US dollars for trading. On the instructions of Nisha and Harini, between March 9 and April 20, the victim transferred over 1.08 crore. However, when he tried to withdraw the money, the fraudsters demanded advance tax and conversion charges. Suspecting foul play, the victim verified the authenticity of the platforms and discovered that they were fake.Based on his complaint, Cyberabad cybercrime police registered a case under Sections 318(4) (cheating), 319(2) (cheating by personation), 336(3) (forgery for purpose of cheating), 338 (forgery of valuable security, will, etc), 340(2) (using as genuine a forged document or electronic record), r/w 3(5) (common intention) of the BNS, 66-D of the IT Act on Thursday.
