Pune Entrepreneur Loses Rs 1.86 Crore in Online Stock Trading Scam
Pune, 17th February 2025: A 67-year-old entrepreneur from Pune has fallen victim to an online share trading scam, losing a staggering Rs 1.86 crore. The fraudsters manipulated the victim into using a malicious stock market application, leading him to believe that his investment had grown to Rs 54 crore over just 20 days.
The incident came to light when the victim, a resident of Kothrud who owns an electrical systems manufacturing unit, filed an FIR at the Cyber Police station in Pune. The scam began in November last year when the entrepreneur came across an advertisement for a share trading platform.
After clicking on the advertisement link, the victim was added to a WhatsApp group with over 130 members. The group’s administrators posted messages about various stock trading opportunities, while other members shared posts about substantial profits earned from their investments. Believing the fraudulent group to be genuine, the complainant observed the activities for over two weeks.
Following that, one of the administrators sent a personal message to the victim, asking him to join a phone-based application. The entrepreneur was instructed to register on this fake stock trading app by submitting his details. Following the administrators’ instructions, he began making “investments” through the app.
The fraudsters directed the victim to transfer money to multiple mule accounts registered in various cities across India, including Chennai, Delhi, Darjeeling, Solan, Coimbatore, Surat, and Howrah. Each transaction was reflected on the trading application with corresponding profits.
After 20 days, the fake app showed gains of Rs 54 crore against the “investment” of Rs 1.86 crore. When the victim attempted to withdraw some of the amounts, he was asked to pay 20% of the total gains as “service charges.” It was at this point that he realized he had been cheated and approached the Cyber Police Station.
