Pune: Two software engineers were allegedly duped of a total of Rs1.53 crore in online share trading frauds between July 7 and Aug 1. One of the victims (45), a resident of Dhayari off Sinhagad Road, lost Rs1.
15 crore. The other, from Wagholi, lost Rs52.92 lakh, the Pune cyber police said.
The crooks promised to buy high-value shares and IPOs for the techies and made them transfer money to 10 bank accounts . Senior Inspector Swapanli Shinde of the cyber police said, "The modus in either case was similar as the crooks added the victims' phone numbers to messaging groups, where the members would discuss high returns from online share trading. The techies contacted the group admins and expressed their interest in investing money in online share trading platforms.
" In the case of the victim from Wagholi, the crooks shared six different bank account numbers with him. They told him to transfer money to the accounts to buy high-value shares and IPOs, which could earn him as much as 800% returns on investment, the police said. "Following this, the techie downloaded the application from the link the suspects had sent him.
It was a screen software and manipulated by the suspects," Shinde said. The techie fell for the trap and transferred money to the six different bank accounts. "His online trading profile showed high returns on his investment in the shares.
When he decided to withdraw the profit, the crooks demanded more money in the form of taxes and citing other reasons. The suspects did not budge despite demanding his money repeatedly," Shinde said. The techie then realised that he had been cheated.
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