Vadodara Businessman Falls Victim to Online Trading Scam, Loses ₹94.75 Lakh

VADODARA, GUJARAT : A Vadodara businessman has been conned out of an astounding ₹94.75 lakh by con artists acting as online trading consultants in a disturbing instance of internet fraud. After the victim—whose identity is still unknown—filed a complaint with the Vadodara Cyber Crime Police Station, the complex scam was looked into.

Meghani describes how the experience started out innocently enough with a stock market investing advice advertisement on his Instagram page. Curious, he clicked on the advertisement, which took him to ICICI Security 98, a WhatsApp group where people exchanged daily stock market advice. He was then added to another WhatsApp group called E(1) Trade Titans, which increased his exposure to allegedly trading tips.

As Meghani got more active in these groups, he started getting messages endorsing a trading strategy that promised a fat fifty percent profit. Encouraged by the prospects, he was told to get the PICICR app from the Google Play Store, ostensibly for trading. Meghani gave the app—which is no longer available on the Play Store—credit for having features like profit competitions and real-time stock market values.

Meghani fell for the con after giving his Aadhaar information for KYC verification, and a week later he saw ₹5,000 paid to his account. Next texts promised big profits and persuaded him to put money into IPOs. Encouraged by the seeming success, Meghani enlisted his wife and increased his investments over time according to the guidance he got from the app.

By April 25, Meghani was shocked to notice on the app an alleged ₹18 crore profit. But when the money was tried to be withdrawn, it was refused and more deposits were demanded in the name of taxes and fines. Meghani deposited ₹44.25 lakh and saw a stated profit of ₹1.12 crore, but she kept getting denied when she tried to take money out, raising questions about possible collusive activity.

Meghani went up to the con artists, desperate for answers, but she was forced to deposit more money—₹60 lakh. Meghani transferred almost ₹99.75 lakh online in total, but she was conned out of ₹94.75 lakh when the con artists broke their word about profit or reimbursements.

Meghani reported this horrible fraud to the Vadodara Cyber Crime Police Station, along with the four unnamed con artists. Authorities have opened an inquiry with the goal of identifying and prosecuting the offenders.