19-07-2025
Lured into fraud share trade, SoBo bizman loses 4cr
Mumbai: A 57-year-old builder from south Mumbai fell prey to a cyber investment scam, losing Rs 4.21 crore over two months after being lured through a fake stock trading platform posing as SBI Caps Securities.
The businessman, a Peddar Road resident, lodged an FIR with South Cyber police station. He has stated that while browsing Instagram on May 16, he came across an advertisement offering high returns on share market investments. On clicking on it, he was contacted by one Saroj Gupta, who added him to a WhatsApp group titled 'SBICAP Securities VIP (G2)'.
The group was operated by several people posing as officials from SBI Caps, including Gupta, Sumita Verma, Richard Mendonca, and others.
They claimed that investors would get high returns through IPOs, block trades, and premium stock picks. The businessman was persuaded to open an 'institutional account' through a fake website, which displayed misleading dashboards showing rising profits.
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According to the FIR, between May 20 and July 8, 2025, the businessman transferred Rs 4.21 crore into various accounts shared on WhatsApp, under the belief that he was purchasing shares and earning profits.
On July 8, when he tried to withdraw his returns, which appeared as Rs 52.88 crore on the fake platform, he was told to first pay 15% of that amount as "service management fee." It was here that he realised that he was defrauded.
Police said that upon learning he was defrauded, he went into trauma.
The next day, he submitted all related screenshots, chat logs, and bank statements to the police and lodged a complaint with the national cyber crime helpline (1930), but most of the money he transferred into various accounts was siphoned off by then.
Police inspector Nandkumar Gopale and assistant inspector Sachin Trimukhe of South Cyber police station are leading the investigation.
