Mumbai: A 59-year-old south Mumbai retiree, who was induced into investing in online share trading by a group of fraudsters, ended up losing nearly Rs 7 crore. While investing the money, he saw his investment and profit touching Rs 149 crore on the accused persons’ website.He was able to transfer Rs 20,000 from his virtual account to his bank account initially but couldn’t withdraw more sums later.The complainant sent Rs 6.8 crore to various accounts given by the accused in 48 transactions from April 11 and May 27. The FIR filed on May 28 with south region cyber police invoked charges of cheating and forgery under BNS and identity theft under IT Act against 10 unidentified persons.The complainant said in April, he came across an online advertisement of a bank on share market investment and clicked on a link in the hope of getting useful tips. He was then added to a WhatsApp group whose members shared tips on buying and selling shares. Convinced that they were the real deal, he decided to invest in stocks and he earned good profits.A few days later, the accused told him that they had introduced a new investment method. After he evinced an interest, they added him to a new WhatsApp group and guided him on going to their website and managing investments. Their website URL changed every few days, the complainant told police. He could see his investment and its status on the website.The group members told him that they were making good profit. Some other members, pretending to be representatives of the company, kept in touch with him and told him about various investment plans and asked him to deposit money in different accounts from time to time.The complainant said his online portfolio showed that he was making a lot of profit. He withdrew Rs 20,000 on May 7 and the amount was transferred to his bank account, which deepened his trust in the accused. At one point, he saw his investment and profit touching Rs 149 crore.When he tried to withdraw his profit, he was asked to pay a sum and then the accused started avoiding him. It is then that he realised he had been cheated and approached police.
