Thane man held for duping Margao resident of Rs 2cr in share-trading fraud

Panaji: The Goa police cybercrime cell on Saturday arrested a man for allegedly cheating a Margao resident of Rs 2 crore by promising high returns on share market investments. An FIR was registered based on a complaint filed by the Margao resident.

Superintendent of police (cybercrime) Raju Raut Desai said the accused, using a WhatsApp number and in collusion with others, contacted the complainant, impersonating a representative of a trading platform. The complainant was introduced to a fake trading application, ‘Trendlytic’, which claimed to offer high returns from share market trades.

“The complainant, after being induced, registered on Trendlytic and began investing. The accused person then assisted him with trading activities and falsely promised high returns,” Desai said. “Under this pretext, the complainant was coerced into transferring a total of Rs 2 crore through multiple transactions into different accounts.”

Desai said the complainant was cheated through impersonation using computer resources.

“Following an in-depth technical investigation, a suspect was traced to Thane, Maharashtra. It was revealed that the accused person received Rs 26 lakh in his bank account, which was subsequently routed to multiple accounts of his associates,” Desai said.

Further analysis found the account was linked to 12 other cyber fraud cases across Karnataka, Maharashtra, Gujarat, and Goa, with a cumulative fraud amount of Rs 2.1 crore