Pune: A retired company consultant based in the Sinhagad Road area on Wednesday evening lodged a complaint with the Pune cyber police, stating that online fraudsters cheated him of Rs57 lakh between April and June, promising him handsome returns on investment in online share-trading. According to the complaint, the victim’s phone number was added to a messaging application group. Its members discussed high returns from trading shares online and praised the group admin for sharing valuable tips.Inspector Sangeeta Deokar of the Cyber police said, “After reading the messages, the victim was impressed with the group admin, and contacted the latter. The group admin told him to download a share trading application — a manipulative screen software in reality.”Deokar said, “After downloading the software, the victim bought shares of low value. The group admin contacted him and told him to buy high-value shares for higher profits. The group admin then promised to help him out in buying high-value shares and IPOs.”The police said the group admin shared details of five bank accounts with the retired consultant, and the latter transferred Rs57 lakh to these bank accounts. “After transferring money to the fraudsters, the screen software showed good profit to the victim. He tried to sell some shares, but the fraudsters did not allow him to do so. The retired consultant then realised that he was cheated,” she said.In another incident, a man (40) from Dhayari, off Sinhagad Road, lodged a complaint with the Nanded City police, stating that online fraudsters cheated him out of Rs33.46 lakh by promising him handsome returns on investment in online shares. The complainant, an employee of a software company, exhausted all his savings between June 4 and July 22 in a similar fashion after his phone number was added to a messaging application group.
