Pune: An employee (43) of a prominent real estate developer in the city lost over Rs46 lakh to cybercrooks between Oct and Nov last year.The victim, a resident of Wagholi, transferred Rs46.33 lakh to different bank account numbers of scamsters after the latter assured him of good profit on investments in commodity and century markets. He initially filed an online complaint and after the preliminary investigation, a case was registered with the Wagholi police on Sunday.An officer from the Wagholi police said the real estate developer’s employee came into contact with the crooks through a dating app. He accepted a friend request on the app and received a message about investments in commodity and century markets, dealing in oil, forex, metal and cryptocurrency. He accepted the offer and filled in the details in a link shared with him to open his trading account. “A woman contacted him through a cellphone messaging app and offered him help to invest his money,” the officer said.The investigating officer said the victim first invested Rs25,000 and earned a profit of Rs10,000. “He could withdraw Rs3,000 from his profit amount,” he said.The officer said the victim then transferred money to different accounts of cybercrooks as he was told to. He even sold his land parcel, borrowed money from friends, and took a personal loan and a gold loan. In total, he transferred Rs46.33 lakh to different bank account numbers. The victim later saw in his account a profit of Rs1.74 crore. When he tried to withdraw the money, the crooks allegedly demanded Rs35 lakh more under the pretext of tax. “When the victim informed his brother about it, the latter told him to approach the police and lodge a complaint,” the officer said.He said the investigation so far revealed that the victim’s money was transferred to different bank accounts in Gaya in Bihar, Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh, Surat in Gujarat, and Chennai, Coimbatore and Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu. “Our investigation is on,” the officer said.
