The Mumbai Police arrested three people for allegedly cheating an elderly woman of over Rs 2.85 crore by luring her into a fake stock market investment scheme.
The scam, which took place between February 2 and March 7 this year, saw the accused posing as legitimate stockbrokers and offering profitable investment opportunities in the share market.
According to police, the victim was initially contacted on Whatsapp by the frauds, who presented to her a professional-looking webpage showing the rise and fall of stock prices and making the scheme look legitimate.
The fraudsters even provided fake documents, including a forged SEBI (Securities and Exchange Board of India) registration certificate, to gain the victim’s trust, said a police officer. Convinced by the fraudulent claims, the woman was persuaded to invest Rs 2.85 crore in the scheme.
However, after the victim transferred the money, they cut off all communication. It was then that the woman realized that she had been duped and approached the police.
The north region cyber police identified the accused as Sheshnath alias Ganesh Shatrughan Pandey (47), Satish Ashok Punamiya (47) and Rahul Rajkumar Bachchan (37), who were arrested in separate raids carried out in Daman and Diu, Gujarat, and Mumbai on Sunday.
During investigation, police found the accused had opened 70 bank accounts, which they used to siphon off victim’s money and charge hefty commissions in return. Police suspect their involvement in 130 similar cyber crime cases across the Mumbai Metropolitan Region.
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