Man duped of ₹41 lakh twice in 2 months by cyber frauds

Gurugram: A 55-year-old man was duped of ₹41.67 lakh by cyber criminals who entrapped him twice in investment fraud within two months, police said on Tuesday.

While impersonating investment officials of two different firms, the suspects approached the victim, a retired army officer and resident of a township in Sector 83, first on December 20, 2024, and again on January 13 this year, officers said, luring him through WhatsApp messages to invest in the stock market and make quick profits.

The man was made to download two separate phishing mobile Apps belong to different firms, to track his profits on investments in the name of providing him demat accounts, they added.

The man transacted ₹15.49 lakh in four different bank accounts in Odisha and Maharashtra through first App. With the second one, he transacted ₹17.18 lakhs in a public sector bank account.

The Apps showed that his overall portfolio had grown to ₹2.34 crores with the investment, a senior police officer requesting anonymity.

“When he tried to withdraw the funds from the first firm on January 28, suspects asked him to first deposit ₹9 lakh as service charge. But despite that when he failed to withdraw it, he realised that the firm had defrauded him,” the officer said.

The victim tried to withdraw more from the second firm’s App. But the suspects asked him to first pay 20% service charge on the profit. He realised to have been duped here too, the officer added.

He finally filed complaint at the cybercrime police station (Manesar) on January 31. On Monday, a first information report was registered against unidentified suspects for cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property under different Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita sections.

In a separate incident, a 74-year-old resident of DLF Phase-V was cheated of ₹7 lakh after suspects trapped him in investment fraud between December 17 and January 8. Officers said the suspects impersonated officials of the firm whose name was used to dupe the retired army officer too. A separate FIR was registered in the case at cybercrime police station (east) on Monday.

Gurugram police’ Sandeep Kumar, PRO, Gurugram police, said investigation was underway in both the cases to arrest the suspects.