Three professionals — a pharmacist, a mall manager, and a private firm employee — have lost almost ₹60 lakh in different online share trading scams reported in Pune. Cases have been filed at the police stations in Sinhagad Road, Kondhwa, and Nanded City.
In one instance, a 52-year-old pharmacist from the Sinhagad Road area was defrauded of ₹26.4 lakh. His complaint states that he was added to a messaging app group in October last year where members talked about stock investments and IPO opportunities.
The group admins claimed to be market experts and offered him online ‘training sessions’ on trading strategies. He was later told to download a mobile app that would allow him to invest and track returns.
At first, he invested a small amount and saw promising profits on the app dashboard. Gaining confidence, he kept transferring money into several bank accounts provided by the scammers from October to December 12. Eventually, he invested ₹26.4 lakh.
The police reported that the victim even took a gold loan of ₹10 lakh to purchase more shares and IPOs suggested by the fraudsters. The app showed profits of ₹33.8 lakh, strengthening his belief that the investments were real.
Doubt only arose when the scammers repeatedly asked for more payments under different excuses, including extra charges and processing fees. When he tried to withdraw his returns, the fraudsters stopped responding, making him realize he had been scammed.
The police are looking into the financial trail and trying to trace the bank accounts used in the transactions. Authorities have once again advised citizens to be cautious of investment offers shared through messaging apps and to verify trading platforms before sending money.
