Hyderabad: A 27-year-old chartered accountant from Gandipet has lost over ₹2.4 crore in stock market investment cyber fraud. Based on his complaint, Cyberabad cyber crime police registered a cheating case on Wednesday.The victim told the police that in Nov 2025, he was approached by unidentified fraudsters over email and Telegram, posing as stock trading experts. As they promised substantial returns, the victim said he initially invested ₹2 lakh through an app, Exness. “Within a few days the trading account on the app showed profits of about ₹5 lakh and the fraudsters told me that I got genuine returns on the investment. Immediately I invested ₹5 lakh and received about ₹9.5 lakh in a few days,” the victim said.The fraudsters then persuaded him to invest larger amounts, and the victim, encouraged by the profits, between Nov 20 and Dec 31, had transferred over ₹2.4 crore to different bank accounts provided through the app in 52 transactions.Subsequently, when the victim tried to withdraw the funds, his account suddenly showed a negative balance. “The fraudsters stopped responding to the group chat on the app and my Telegram chat history with the accused had also been cleared. They became incommunicado. Later, I realised that Exness app had also been removed from the Google Play Store for fraudulent activity,” the complainant stated before the police.The victim told police that he had taken loans to invest through the fraudulent app. After unsuccessfully trying to establish contact with the fraudsters and attempting to get his money back through the banking channels, the victim filed a complaint with National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal on July 27. He lodged a complaint with Cyberabad police on Wednesday and a case was registered under sections 318(4) (cheating), 319(2) (cheating by personation), 336(3) (Forgery for purpose of cheating), 338 (Forgery of valuable security, will, etc), 340(2) (Using as genuine a forged document or electronic record), r/w 3(5) (common intention) of the BNS, 66-D of the IT Act.
