In what is a matter of serious concern, there has been a major increase in investment scams that have led many victims to lose crores. The seriousness can be gauged from the fact that victims are lining up every day at cybercrime stations with a whole lot of complaints about being conned by the scammers. The street-smart fraudsters have been adopting a new modus operandi to instill fear among the potential victims-they are using names of ED and IT department.
A private employee from Begumpet broke down before the Hyderabad CCS after he lost Rs 1.05 crore in a gradual investment fraud. He kept investing as directed by the fake company oblivious of the danger that lurked around.
“I came across a Facebook link that said they would help me buy stocks at prices lower than the market value. As I was interested in investing, I clicked on the link and registered. Later I was added to a WhatsApp group, where the admins were Priyanka and Sanjay Patel, who had displayed pictures of persons who looked genuine.
The group had 187 people,” a victim said. “The website looked genuine and consisted of shares of well-known companies. So in the final statement it would appear like this — for example, for a company share, the buying price would be Rs 204 and the selling price Rs 228.
That way, for 400 shares, the net profit would be `9,236, which also includes commission. Seeing that I am getting Rs 9K for investing Rs 200, made me confident and I kept investing,” he said. After making .