Man assured ‘500% profit’, loses Rs 43 lakh in trade fraud

Noida: A senior manager working in a private company was allegedly cheated of Rs 43 lakh in an online investment scam promising high stock market returns.An FIR, based on the manager’s complaint, was registered at the cyber crime police station on Thursday. He told the police that a woman contacted him on WhatsApp in the third week of Feb and presented him with a purported business opportunity.

She introduced herself as Diya Mehra from Aditya Birla Sun Life and lured him with 300 to 500% gains on stock market investments.She then claimed that she was trained under a professor who was a certified trading expert. She persuaded him to invest money in selected stocks daily to receive the purported gains within three to six months.She persuaded the manager to register on a website and mobile application. Initially, small profits were shown on the app interface, which helped build trust.

He was encouraged to invest larger sums and was repeatedly given different bank accounts to transfer money to. Each time, he had to add a new beneficiary before transferring the amount.Police said the manager transferred the amount in 11 transactions to multiple bank accounts between Feb 21 and March 6. After each payment, the scammers, posing as customer care executives, confirmed the transactions.When the manager later attempted to withdraw the amount, the scammers demanded Rs 20 lakh more as a purported security charge.

He was allowed to withdraw only small amounts – Rs 200 and Rs 6,000 – for the next week. Suspicious of the repeated demands, the manager conducted his own verification and discovered that the trading platform and the displayed profits were completely fake.Realising he had been cheated, he immediately approached the cyber crime police, requesting the freezing of the beneficiary accounts and recovery of the money.

Police confirmed that a case was registered and an investigation is underway.Officials noted that similar investment frauds have been reported in Noida over the past year. In separate incidents during 2025, cyber criminals cheated many of Rs 28 lakh, Rs 35 lakh, Rs 18 lakh, Rs 40 lakh and Rs 25 lakh using fake trading apps and WhatsApp investment groups.