An Enforcement Directorate (ED) team, in its clampdown on a cyber investment fraud racket, apprehended four individuals last month, including one from Bengaluru, for inducing novice and prospective investors into the stock market and appropriating their money via fraudulent means.

The four persons apprehended by ED sleuths included Shashi Kumar M, 25, Sachin M, 26, Kiran S.K., 25, and Charan Raj C., 26, in a case related to the cyber investment scam.

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The arrests were made last month after a series of searches and raids at multiple locations. The ED team seized various incriminating materials including mobile phones and other digital devices in its raids. So far, it has traced Proceeds of Crime of more than Rs 25 crore in the cyber investment scam.

The modus operandi of these cyber criminals included approaching gullible investors and defrauding their hard-earned money by inducing them to invest in stock markets through fake and fraudulent apps. Their operation was also not limited to any particular state, rather their network spanned multiple zones.

In Haryana’s Faridabad, their victim was an individual who got cheated of Rs 7.59 crore by the scamsters by inducing her to invest in stocks through fake apps. The victim had clicked on a share market investment link while browsing Facebook, after which she was added to a WhatsApp group named ICICI IR Team (57). A businessman in Noida was cheated of Rs 9.09 crore by the scamsters who added him to a WhatsApp group named GFSL Securities official Stock C 80. He was induced to download an App and made to transfer Rs 9.09 crore to various bank accounts provided by customer care of the app.

A doctor in Punjab’s Bhatinda was defrauded of Rs 5.93 crore by inducing him to download a fake App namely GFSL Securities when he was browsing Facebook. The modus operandi of these cyber investment fraudsters remained common – Luring victims via common social media platforms including Facebook, WhatsApp, Telegram and more; adding those interested investors into WhatsApp/Telegram Groups and making them believe their genuineness with fake names; and investors being given links of fake apps to download and install in order to do their investment.

As the apps are named after companies, it gives the impression that they are genuine. Scamsters then induce victims to invest their money in bank accounts of shell companies and fake IPOs. Initially, the investors get good returns and once trust is built, a big chunk of their money is siphoned off to some fictitious entity. They are unable to withdraw money from there and then have to depend on customer care but to no avail.