Mumbai: A 68-year-old retired bank manager was duped of Rs 1.5 crore in a cyber investment scam after clicking on a fake Facebook advertisement featuring Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman.The fraudsters claimed the ongoing Iran-US conflict had created lucrative opportunities in foreign crude oil trading and persuaded the victim to invest through a platform called Savexa.The callers introduced themselves as representatives of an investment firm named Savexa and claimed that the ongoing Iran-US conflict created a rare opportunity to earn massive profits by investing in foreign crude oil markets. A man identifying himself as “Zain”, claiming to be a fund manager, persuaded the retired banker to invest through repeated Zoom meetings and emails.According to the victim’s complaint filed with the Maharashtra nodal cyber police station, he came across a Facebook video, purportedly showing the finance minister claiming that an investment of Rs 22,000 could generate returns of Rs 30 lakh within a month.“Zain” lured him into making multiple RTGS and UPI transfers. The accused in the initial stage even transferred Rs 4 lakh profit to the victim to win his confidence before demanding further investments and promising returns of Rs 10 crore on an investment of Rs 2 crore.After clicking on the link and submitting his details, he began receiving calls from several UK-based mobile numbers.Believing the investment to be genuine, the victim transferred money in multiple transactions between April and May.In all, the victim transferred Rs 1.5 crore before realising that he had been duped. He has now lodged complaints with the nodal cyber police and the national cyber crime helpline. Police have launched an investigation into the fake investment racket and are tracing the mobile numbers, bank accounts and digital trail used by the accused.
