BENGALURU: A Facebook advertisement that appeared to offer a lucrative online trading opportunity turned into a Rs 1.9-crore fraud for a 47-year-old techie after he was persuaded to invest in a fake trading platform.According to a complaint filed by Siddarth (name changed), a resident of Varanasi in east Bengaluru, the fraud happened between Feb 27 and Sept 9.The ordeal began after he came across an advertisement on Facebook in Feb. After clicking on it, he was contacted by a couple of fraudsters posing as representatives and advisers of a trading platform.They contacted him and, on the pretext of guiding him, persuaded him to join what they called the ‘Proxtrend’ investment platform.Siddarth registered an account on a fake website, http://www.proxtrendltd.com, which stated that it was operated by Proxtrend Ltd, registered on Mwali Island, Comoros.Siddarth started trading on Feb 27 and subsequently came into regular contact with a person identified as Raja S, who introduced himself as an account manager and guided him on trading and transactions.Over the following months, substantial amounts of money were transferred for trading and investment purposes.The complainant said he later became concerned about the availability of his funds and attempted to withdraw them. However, instead of processing his requests, he continued receiving communications asking him to trade further or arrange additional funds.Initially, he had been able to make only limited withdrawals. On Sept 9, he specifically sought to withdraw his money. Despite waiting for more than 48 hours, the request was not processed. He was told that withdrawing the funds was a difficult and tedious process.He stated he was asked to arrange amounts such as Rs 50 lakh and Rs 20 lakh to facilitate the release of the funds.He named several people who contacted him, including Raja Reslan, Walter Khan, Ronnie S, Alisha Agarwal, Shashikanth Sharma, Shiva Tappar and Rayan S.He also mentioned George Tyson, Vijay Sharma and Jay Shroff, seeking verification of their identities and links with the platform. He said he had already approached the cyber helpline 1930.The transactions took place between Feb 27 and Sept 9, with the total loss amounting to Rs 1.9 crore.East Cyber Crime police are making efforts to freeze the amount transferred by the victim.
