Hyderabad: Doctor lured into a fake trading scheme; defrauded of Rs 14.61 crore
Telangana Cyber Security Bureau registered a case after the victim, who resides in Prem Nagar, Erragadda, filed a complaint.
Hyderabad: A doctor from the city was lured into a fake investment scheme and was defrauded of Rs 14.61 crore by cyber criminals pretending to be a woman, tv9 telugu reported.
This is the biggest ever cyber investment fraud to have occurred in Telangana.
Telangana Cyber Security Bureau registered a case after the victim, who resides in Prem Nagar, Erragadda, filed a complaint.
How did Monica Madhavan con the doctor?
The fraud began in August, when the cyber criminal posed as Monica Madhavan and contacted the doctor through Facebook Messenger.
The woman said that her husband cheated on her and she was going through a divorce to allegedly gain the sympathy of the doctor. She later continued conversations with the doctor on Telegram.
According to police, the woman claimed that she had five years experience in stock trading and convinced him that she was earning Rs 4-5 lakh everyday. She persuaded him to sign up on an online trading platform to invest lakhs of rupees.
Doctor took out loans, borrowed from friends to invest:
In September, he had invested Rs 30 lakh and soon after, the trading dashboard showed Rs 8.7 lakh in profit, which convinced him that the investment was genuine.
Initially the fraudsters used profits to deepen the deception, and then encouraged the doctor to keep investing large sums. They facilitated the withdrawal of a measly sum of Rs 85,000 initially to make it genuine.
He then took loans and borrowed money from friends to invest Rs 14 crore in several instalments. His dashboard at one point displayed Rs 34 crore in profits.
Trouble began when he wanted to withdraw larger sums of money and the fraudsters demanded Rs 7 crore as tax to release funds.
When the documents by fraudsters appeared suspicious, the doctor began to question the authenticity of the platform. When he confronted the woman, she ceased communicating immediately.
Later, he filed a complaint with Telangana Cyber Security Bureau and an investigation is underway to trace the trail of money and the accused.
TGCSB officials have said that they are probing interstate cyber crime links and multiple bank accounts, digital payment channels.
Cyber crime officials have warned the public against falling for high-return online trading schemes and not to trust unknown people on Facebook, Telegram or other social media channels.