Five Vizag investors lose ₹1.7 crore in online scam

Visakhapatnam: Five persons from parts of the Vizag city reportedly lost over Rs 1.7 crore in an online investment scam carried out by cybercrooks posing as company representatives and finance advisors. The cyber crooks have been promising high returns on the investment, money through high-paying stocks, it is greed that makes the victims fall into the trap and loses lakhs to crores.

A 50-year-old man mentioned that he was added to the BOB CAPS WhatsApp group in this April and he received WhatsApp messages on stock market updates and trends. Later, some of the members in the WhatsApp group explained about the primary market and how they differ with the stock market, block trading of company shares after market hours with discount rates of the institutional account holders and trading activities through the fake website. They also claimed that institutional account holders would get discounted rates and high profits

Convinced by their assurances, the victim registered on the website and was later added to a Telegram group named VIP BOB CAPS. Trusting their claims, he initially invested Rs 50,000 and soon received Rs 60,000 as profit.

Encouraged by the quick return, he went on to invest large sums , transferring money in phases. Between April and May, he reportedly sent a cumulative total of Rs 1 crore through various modes of transactions to multiple bank accounts linked to fraudsters.

“When he tried to withdraw the profit displayed on the trading site, the fraudsters failed to respond, and all communication from the group ceased. Despite repeated messages and calls, the complainant received no response. Realising that he was cheated, the victim lodged a complaint with cybercrime police station in Vizag city seeking action against the fraudsters. Based on his complaint, police registered a case under relevant sections of the IT Act and several provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.

Similarly, four others from Vizag city lost around Rs 70 lakh after investing in the online trading platform and the victims lodged a complaint with cybercrime police station in Vizag city seeking action against the fraudsters.

The police observed that the online investment scams accounted for around 40 per cent of the total money Vizagites lost to cybercrimes in every month. The biggest hunk of these financial cyber frauds involved different types of investment scams. This was driven by netizen’s greed and desire to make easy money, which was why they fell for such investment schemes that promised quick returns, said a senior police officer.