WhatsApp, trading fraud: Noida businessman duped of Rs 9 crore by cyber thugs

Noida, Jun 1 (PTI) A businessman has been allegedly duped of over Rs 9 crore by cyber thugs here, police said on Saturday.

According to the police, the fraud took place over a period of one month after Rajat Bothra, resident of sector 40, got added to a WhatsApp group about stock market trading on May 1. An FIR was lodged at the Cyber Crime police station in sector 36 on Friday and Rs 1.62 crore transacted funds have been frozen in the businessman's account, they said, adding further investigations are underway.

"Bothra informed police that he was added to the WhatsApp group on May 1. The group had information about profit from share market trading and since then he started small amounts of investments. By May 27, he had invested Rs 9.09 crore in share trading. However, after this, his (trading) account was closed," Assistant Commissioner of Police (Cyber Crime police station) Vivek Ranjan Rai said.

"When we got the complaint, we immediately started an investigation and so far we have managed to get Rs 1.62 crore in his bank account frozen," Rai said.

During investigation, it was found that the bank accounts in which the duped money was transferred are located at various places, including Chennai, Assam, Bhubaneswar, Haryana and Rajasthan, the ACP said.

He said a special team has been formed to investigate the case and arrest the cyber thugs involved in it.

The police also urged the general public to be cautious of emerging online crimes and reach out to them at the earliest either by using central helpline number 1930 or emergency number 112 or at the cyber desk at local police stations.