Pune Retired Engineer Loses Rs 2 Crore in Online Share Trading Scam
A 66-year-old retired engineer residing in the Kothrud area of Pune has been defrauded of Rs 2 crore by online fraudsters between January and March. The scammers lured him with promises of substantial returns on investments in online share trading.
The retired engineer initially submitted a complaint application to the police. Following verification, a formal First Information Report (FIR) was registered on Monday.
Senior Inspector Swapnali Shinde of the Pune Cyber police stated, “The retired engineer was alone at home when fraudsters added his phone number to a messaging app group. Members of this group regularly discussed the high returns they had earned through online share trading. The profit figures greatly impressed the retired engineer.”
She further explained, “The retired engineer then contacted the group administrator to learn more about online share trading. The administrator instructed him to download a share trading application on his cellphone.”
According to Shinde, “The complainant began purchasing shares through the application, which initially showed nominal profits. After a few days, the group administrator contacted him and advised him to invest in high-value shares to earn greater returns.”
The police reported that the fraudsters promised to assist the retired engineer in purchasing high-value shares. The group administrator shared details of eight different bank accounts, and the complainant transferred money into these accounts over a period of time.
After about a month, the trading application displayed a profit of more than Rs 4 crore for the retired engineer. Encouraged by these apparent gains, he exhausted all his savings to purchase more shares.
“When the engineer decided to sell the shares and withdraw the profit amount, the fraudsters did not allow him to do so. He then realized that he had been cheated,” Shinde said.
The cyber police have launched an investigation to trace the fraudsters and the bank accounts used in the scam.
