Retired employee from Ahmedabad duped of Rs 83.15 lakh in WhatsApp investment scam

A 60-year-old retired man from Ramdevnagar, Satellite, Ahmedabad was cheated out of Rs 83.15 lakh by cybercrooks who lured him with promises of high returns on investments through a WhatsApp group.The complainant, a former employee of ISRO, stated in his FIR at the cybercrime police station that on October 2, 2024, he received a WhatsApp message from an unknown number, claiming to be from “Ishani Mehta”, according to TOI report.She invited him to join a stock trading group named ‘002 Asset Appreciation VIP Group’, reportedly managed by a certain “Professor Arjun Hinduja”.After joining the group, the complainant received stock recommendations that promised daily returns of 5% to 30%. Trusting the group, he was directed to fill out a registration form bearing the forged branding of a reputed company and was later asked to download a fake trading app named R Gara.The complainant transferred Rs 83.15 lakh through several transactions to multiple bank accounts shared on the group. Initially, he was able to see his investment grow on the app and was even allowed to withdraw Rs 25,000.However, when the fraudsters told him that an IPO of “Deepak Builders & Engineers India Ltd” required an additional Rs 70 lakh to unlock his account balance — which by then was showing over Rs 2.38 crore — he refused. Subsequently, his access to the app was blocked and the fraudsters became unreachable.The FIR states: “They created a fake app and used the name of a known stock expert and company to gain my trust. They lured me with fake profits and froze my funds when I refused to pay more.”The complainant initially contacted the cybercrime helpline and later approached the cybercrime police, where a complaint was registered under relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita pertaining to cheating, breach of trust, and cyber fraud.