Businessman, elderly woman lose ₹1.3 cr. to investment fraud in the name of leading company

A 53-year-old businessman and an elderly woman lured by a prominent company’s name lost a total of ₹1.3 crore to online investment fraud and approached the East Division Cyber Crime Police seeking help .

The businessman, in his complaint on Thursday, said that he received a WhatsApp message on his mobile on July 17, from an unknown number, sharing a “Reliance Capital Limited Primary Market Account Registration Form.” They asked him to deposit ₹50,000 promising higher returned in a day’s time. Out of curiosity, he invested the money and saw a 5% profit the next day. He wanted to sell the shares but the other investors in the group suggested him to continue and go for higher investment. Following the advice, he invested a huge sum of money and realised that he has been trapped .

In his complaint, he said that he allotted a total of 42,381 shares after making the payment of ₹18,99,940.23. They asked him to close the trade and showed the profit of 120%.

“When I applied for the 2nd IPO (Initial Public Offering), I was allotted 1,09,824 shares and the amount required was ₹81,09,404.16. I was short of ₹35,01,000 and i told them that I would not be able to pay this amount. They said that if I didn’t pay the remaining money, the amount could not be refunded. So, i borrowed the rest of the amount to pay,” he stated in the complaint, adding that they offered him short-term loan for the shortage and asked him to repay within five days, and told him that he can withdraw all the money.

“When I repaid back the amount, they asked me to sell the IPO and showed the total profit amount to ₹1,26,28,000. After this, they told me to apply for the withdrawal of the money and asked me to pay 15% brokerage charges of the profit amount, that is ₹ 11,00,000,” the victim said in his complaint.

After paying the amount, they told to pay 10% custodian charges of ₹12,00,000. This is when he got a doubt and enquired with his friends and they told him that it was a trap.

Another incident

In a similar incident, a 63-year-old retired employee and resident of Kodihalli, lost ₹76 lakh to similar modus operandi and filed a complaint with the East Division Cyber Crime Police on Thursday.

She came in contact with the accused who added her to a “Reliance user exclusive service Group” on July 2.

She started investing in pull up stocks, Block trade and IPO(Initial public Offering) worth ₹76,55,264.

In her complaint, she said that she stopped the investment on August 22, and asked for withdrawal of the amount and was told to pay 10% brokerage amount for the profit gained.

She requested them to deduct the brokerage amount from her account but they insisted on paying the brokerage amount seprately.