Hyderabad: Cyberabad cybercrime wing arrested two persons accused of cheating two city residents, with one of them losing Rs.1.67 crore and the other Rs.7.9 lakh. Both accused had provided current accounts to the fraudsters to carry out transactions.According to officials, in one case, a victim aged about 30 years came across a woman’s profile on a matrimonial site. During the conversation, the fraudster convinced him to invest in stocks through a fake application. “She gave him fake assurances that she resides in the US and would be shifting to India to marry the complainant. Saying investing in the application would help them gain money to secure their future, she made the victim immaculately invest Rs.1,67,50,000,” the official said. In this regard, the police had earlier made four arrests, and had made the fifth one during the weekend, that of Kondragunta Srikanth Kumar, 37, a native of Nellore in AP and a resident of Motinagar. Poolice said he was a bank staffer and supplied a current account to the fraudsters. Police found around 250 FIRs registered across the country against the same account holder, for cyber frauds including investment fraud, job fraud, and sextortion. In the other case, a victim lost Rs.7,91,204, after being lured into installing an application for investment in stock trading. The fraudsters helped the victim create a demat account, offered training for investment and showed fake shares of various legitimate companies. “For a fake share, they showed the same amount as the original share. This gave the victim an illusion that the application was legit when the cross-checked share prices on the company’s original website,” another official said. Police have arrested Dudekula Mohammed Shafi, 40, a tax consultant from Balapur for providing a current bank account to the fraudsters. Police found 52 FIRs linked to the account registered across various states including Telangana and Jharkhand. Cost Accountant Student Lose Rs. 15L Hyderabad: A 27-year-old cost accountant and student from Jagadgirigutta complained to the Cyberabad cybercrime police of losing Rs.15.49 lakh to a stock trading scam run through a fake app. The victim saw an advertisement on WhatsApp on July 23, promoting the app, which claimed to help users gain trading skills. He was persuaded to open an institutional trading account and deposit money, being promised high returns from block trades, upper circuit stocks and IPO allotments. Following their instructions, he deposited Rs.12,000, and smaller amounts later as they gained his trust. All the investments totalled up to Rs.15,49,291. He was shown virtual profits of Rs.47 lakh, allowed to withdraw Rs.200 once, and lured into applying for a “Highway Infrastructure IPO” (26,000 shares for Rs.10 lakh). Later, all withdrawal options were blocked and he was asked to pay another Rs.4.9 lakh to release profits. The funds were routed to multiple fraudulent bank/UPI accounts, and the operators stopped responding.
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