Pune: Cybercrooks allegedly duped a 53-year-old man from Chinchwad of Rs1.36 crore by promising him handsome returns on investments in online share trading.The complainant, who works as a senior manager with a telecom company, lodged a complaint with Pimpri Chinchwad cyber police on Friday. The fraud took place between Dec last year and Feb this year.An officer from the cyber police said, “The suspects added the man’s phone number to a group on a messaging application. Group members discussed the high returns they had allegedly generated by buying and selling shares online. The group members also regularly thanked the group admin for his share-trading tips. The complainant read the messages and was impressed by the profit figures discussed by the group members.“He said the complainant then contacted the group admin and asked him to help him earn quick money through online share trading. “The group admin asked him to download a mobile application to buy and sell shares for profit. The manager downloaded the application after the group admin sent him its link. He then started buying shares of low value. The group admin later contacted him and asked him to buy high-value shares and invest in IPOs to generate higher profits.”The group admin promised to help him buy high-value shares and IPOs. He then shared details of four different bank accounts, and the manager started transferring money to these accounts. “The complainant eventually transferred more than Rs1.36 crore. Meanwhile the share-trading application showed him profits of over Rs2.5 crore. When decided to sell the shares and realise the profits, the suspects did not allow him to sell them. He then became suspicious and then realised he had been cheated,” the officer added.
