Pune: A 58-year-old retail businessman from Mundhwa lost Rs1.22 crore between Oct and Dec last year to cybercrooks in an online share-trading fraud after falling for the high returns bait.Pune cyberpolice registered a case of cheating on Monday after verifying the businessman’s complaint application submitted earlier. According to the FIR, the store owner’s phone number was added to a group on a messaging application, where its members discussed high returns generated by trading shares online. “The group’s title was identical to a prominent share broking company. Its members always thanked the group admin for her valuable tips on trading shares online,” the FIR stated.“When the store owner contacted the group admin, she sent him the link of a cellphone application to trade shares. The businessman downloaded it and started buying low-value shares,” senior inspector Swapnali Shinde of Pune cyberpolice said.The group admin told the store owner a few days later to invest in high-value shares to generate more profit and allegedly said she would buy shares on his behalf. “The group admin then shared seven bank account numbers with the store owner,” the police said.According to the FIR, the businessman transferred Rs1.22 crore to these accounts and his application showed a cumulative profit of Rs6.75 crore. When he decided to sell shares worth Rs2.5 crore, the fraudsters allegedly did not allow him to do so. The complainant then realised that he was cheated, the police said.
