NOIDA: A woman was allegedly defrauded of over Rs 51 lakh into a stock trading scam, promising a handsome return, police said on Monday.
They said the victim, Meenu Rani of Greater Noida, lodged a complaint with the Cyber Crime police station on Saturday. She stated that she was defrauded by Hari Singh, who claimed to have 15 years of experience in stock market investment. She invested a total of Rs 51.50 lakh.
Rani in her complaint mentioned that after being lured into the scheme, she was added to a WhatsApp group and had also taken money from her husband, mother-in-law and relatives for investing.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (Cyber Crime) Preeti Yadav said Aarti Singh, a member of the group Rani was added to, contacted her and told her that Hari had bought several Amazon gift vouchers of Rs 1,000 to help a woman, which were now being given to all the women in the group. When Rani logged in with her ID on Amazon using the gift voucher, Rs 1,000 was credited to her account.
Yadav said upon seeing this, Rani’s trust deepened in Hari, who told her that if she invested in the stock market, she could earn three to five times the invested amount in a month.
The officer said the fraudsters then asked the woman to invest Rs 50,000 initially. When the woman transferred this amount to the account mentioned by the fraudsters, her profit started appearing along with the original amount on an app that the fraudsters had asked her to download.
To earn more profit, the woman also transferred money from her husband, mother-in-law and relative’s accounts. When Rani asked for a loan from an acquaintance, she was told that she had been scammed. Following this, when Rani asked back her money from the schemers, they broke off the contact.
Yadav said out of the total amount deposited in the fake scheme, Rs 4,80,000 has been held back, and efforts are being made to recover the remaining amount as well.
A case was registered under the Information Technology Act. Further investigation is underway, police added.