Mumbai: Man Falls Victim to ₹1.52 Crore Cyber Fraud on Instagram; Police Register Case

A 53-year-old man from Colaba was defrauded of crores of rupees by cybercriminals on Instagram, who lured him with promises of significant profits from stock market investments. Senior Police Inspector Nand Kumar Gopale confirmed that a case has been registered at the South Division Cyber Police Station under sections 419, 420, 465, 468, 471, and 120 B of the Indian Penal Code, as well as sections 66(C) and 66(D) of the Information Technology Act.

The victim, a Chief Marketing Officer at a major company, encountered an advertisement on Instagram about stock market opportunities. After clicking on the ad on May 1, he was added to a WhatsApp group managed by the cybercriminals. In this group, an institutional account was created, and the criminals pressured the victim to apply for hard-to-obtain IPOs, promising high returns. They claimed they would purchase the IPOs on his behalf and requested payment later.

When the complainant checked the institutional account, it appeared that the IPOs had been bought, but in reality, no transactions had occurred. The criminals deceived the victim and extorted ₹1.52 crore from him. Between May 1 and June 18, while the complainant was at his Colaba home, individuals using the names Ravi Singh and Ameen Drehius provided stock trading information in the WhatsApp group. They pretended to be stock market experts and manipulated the complainant into investing by showing fake profits on a fraudulent webpage.

The complainant was deceived into paying ₹1.52 crore in multiple installments to different bank accounts, believing he would receive substantial returns. A formal complaint has been filed at the South Cyber Police Station against Ravi Singh and others who contacted the victim via WhatsApp for stock trading and advisory services, as well as those who held the bank accounts used for the fraudulent transactions.