Mumbai
In a disturbing cyber fraud case, a 62-year-old housewife from Bandra, Mumbai, was allegedly cheated of ₹7.88 crore by scammers pretending to be employees of a well-known financial firm, officials from the West Region Cyber Police said on Monday.
The woman was first approached via WhatsApp by someone claiming to be the assistant of a senior official from the company. The fraudster offered her stock market investment tips with promises of high returns. She was then added to a WhatsApp group where multiple individuals, posing as finance experts, walked her through fake investment procedures.
The scammers directed her to a bogus website designed to look authentic. Over two months, she transferred ₹7.88 crore to various bank accounts, believing she was making genuine investments.
Trouble began when she tried to withdraw her returns and was told to pay an additional 10% as processing fees. Suspicious of the demand, she started investigating and realised she had been duped.
She lodged a complaint on the national cyber crime portal, and the police have filed a case under the Indian Penal Code and the Information Technology Act against unknown individuals. A full investigation is now underway.
Police have urged the public to be cautious while dealing with online investment schemes, especially those that involve unofficial communication platforms and unusually high profit promises.