Cyber police arrest Nagpada resident in ₹11 crore online trading fraud
A 31-year-old man was arrested for a cyber fraud where a 75-year-old lost ₹11 crore in a fake online trading scheme. Police are pursuing more suspects.
MUMBAI: The South Cyber police on Wednesday arrested a 31-year-old Nagpada resident in connection with the online share trading fraud in which a 75-year-old Colaba resident recently lost ₹11 crore.
The arrested accused was identified as Kaif Ibrahim Mansuri, who used to work as a customer relationship executive at a private bank. The 31-year-old allegedly used the documents of unsuspecting people to open bank accounts in their names and supplied the same to cyber fraudsters for routing defrauded amounts.
The police said they have seized five debit cards from Mansuri that were used to withdraw money from bank accounts linked with the ₹11 crore fraud. They have also seized 33 debit cards, along with chequebooks related to 12 bank accounts, belonging to different people.
On scrutinising the banking details linked to the fraud, the police found that a woman had withdrawn ₹6 lakh from a connected bank account. When the police questioned her, she revealed that the arrested accused had sent her to withdraw the money for him in exchange for a fee. The police found that ₹44 lakh of the defrauded amount had been diverted to the accused’s bank account. Following Mansuri’s arrest, the police have leads on the main accused and hope to arrest them soon.
According to the Colaba resident’s police complaint, he was added to a random WhatsApp group on August 19 where people were posting messages about how they had earned huge returns by investing in shares through a well-known brokerage firm. After a few days, the group’s operator sent him a message asking if he was ready to invest in share trading. Influenced by the messages posted on the group, the complainant agreed.
The 75-year-old then provided his documents to the cyber fraudster, who opened a trading account on an app that had the name of a well-known brokerage firm. The details of the account were shared via a screenshot on a separate WhatsApp group created for him.
The fraudster then instructed the man to invest in a newly launched initial public offering (IPO) and provided a different bank account to him for the purpose. When the complainant enquired as to why the company was receiving money in a different bank account, he was told it was for tax purposes.
The complainant then started investing and eventually started seeing the supposed profits he was earning reflected in his virtual account. He ended up investing a sum of ₹11.16 crore, mostly by blindly following the instructions of the fraudsters, in 22 transactions.
However, when the complainant contacted the operator saying he wanted to withdraw the money deposited in his trading account, he was told he would have to pay 20% of the credited amount as a service charge. Finding this suspicious, the complainant contacted the Lower Parel office of the firm whose name was being used by the operators and learnt that he had sent all the money to cyber fraudsters, said a police officer.
The complainant then approached the police. Based on his complaint, the cyber police registered a case against unknown persons. The police are now trying to identify the fraudsters using the mobile numbers and bank account details used in the crime.
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