COIMBATORE: A 40-year-old man in Coimbatore district lost Rs 11.10 lakh after being lured into a fraudulent stock trading scheme through social media and messaging apps.According to police sources, C Krishna Prasath of R R Pudupalayam near Narasimhanaickenpalayam clicked on an Instagram advertisement that promised lucrative returns on block trading and IPO share investments. Following this, cyber fraudsters contacted him via WhatsApp and persuaded him to download a mobile application named ‘HB Ultra’ under the pretext of completing KYC verification and starting investments.Believing their promises of high returns, he transferred a total of Rs 11.10 lakh in two transactions to an ICICI Bank account specified by the fraudsters. However, after receiving the money, the cybercriminals failed to deliver the promised profits and refused to refund the principal amount invested.Realising he had been cheated, Prasath reported the incident on National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal on Oct 8. Following an initial inquiry, the district cybercrime police on Thursday registered a first information report under sections 318(4), 319 (2), and 308 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) alongside Section 66 (D) of the Information Technology (IT) Act.
