A 45-year-old resident of Thergaon in Pune was duped of Rs 2.5 crore in an online share market investment scam, police said. Vivek Shubash Dange, a director of statistical programming at a Gurugram-based company, filed a complaint at the Wakad police station on December 30, 2023.Dange said he was interested in learning about the stock market due to work-from-home arrangements after his company's Pune office closed in April 2023. He created a Demat account and was researching online when he saw an advertisement from Sequoia Capital on his Instagram account on October 29, 2023, offering training in share market investing. Intrigued, Dange clicked the link and joined a WhatsApp group called "GQ5 Lunch with Buffet" with over 100 members.
The group admin, Juhi, sent him another link to a group where a man named Chinmay Golecha was giving lectures and encouraging investment in the stock market. He also shared information on trading and sales. Initially, Dange made some profits on his investments based on the group's advice. He was then contacted by Juhi, who suggested investing through Sequoia Capital for higher returns. Dange registered an account and received links to download various trading platforms on different devices, including an Android phone, a laptop, and an iPhone.
Juhi provided him with login credentials and assigned him a wallet on the website where he could see his investment details. The accused gained Dange's trust by showing him screenshots of profits made by other members and enticing him to invest more. Dange, who had already withdrawn Rs 3 lakh from his e-wallet to his bank account in December, was further convinced by the platform's apparent legitimacy. Lured by the initial returns, Dange sold his flat and took loans from two banks to invest a total of Rs 70 lakh in the share market. His online wallet showed a balance of Rs 2.15 crore. He was then told to invest Rs 4.33 crore for an IPO and asked to pay the remaining amount into a bank account provided by the accused. When Dange refused to invest further, his wallet was deactivated, preventing him from withdrawing his money.
The accused also threatened to freeze his account for six months if he didn't invest in the IPO. Dange realized he was being scammed and filed an online police complaint immediately. He provided the police with transaction proofs from November 29, 2023, to December 30, 2023.An FIR has been registered under sections 34 (criminal acts done by several persons in furtherance of a common design), 406 (criminal breach of trust), 419 (cheating by personation), 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), 66(c) (misrepresentation) and 66(d) (dishonest receipt, concealment of stolen property) of the Indian Penal Code and the Information Technology Act against Juhi, Chinmay Golecha, Dhvani Daga, and other unidentified WhatsApp numbers.