Pune: Three individuals, including a director of a private company, an automobile spare parts businessman, and a software engineer, lost Rs 1.16 crore in an online share trading fraud.Separate cases were registered with the Bavdhan, Nigdi, and Sangvi police stations on Tuesday.A 40-year-old director of an engineering firm, who lost Rs 57.7 lakh in the fraud, stated in his complaint with the Bavdhan police that the crooks contacted him in July through a mobile messenger app and added him to a group of investors. “The crooks offered him a 15% profit on his investments in the stock market under their guidance and shared a link,” an officer from the Bavdhan police said.He said the victim, between July and Aug, transferred Rs 57.7 lakh to different bank account numbers provided to him.”The victim could see in the app that he earned a good amount of profit on his investments. Whenever he tried to withdraw his money, the crooks cited different reasons and demanded more money from him,” he said.When the victim did not get his money back, he realised that he was being duped and approached the police.In another similar fraud, a 53-year-old automobile spares supplier from Chinchwad lost Rs 33.1 lakh to the cyber crooks between Aug and Sept last year. The victim lodged a complaint with the Nigdi police on Tuesday. He came into contact with the crooks through a social media platform. “They made him download two apps for online stock trading and took money from him,” an officer from Nigdi police said.In the third case, a project manager working with a software company lost Rs 25.1 lakh to cyber crooks in the online share trading fraud between July and Sept 20 this year. The victim has lodged a complaint with the Sangvi police.
