4 months ago
2
A 71-year-old retired Indian Army Colonel and his woman person allegedly been cheated of astir ₹1.98 crore successful a premeditated online concern and cyber fraud aft being lured done a fake trading level that misused the sanction of a well-known banal marketplace expert.
The victim, a nonmigratory of Richards Town successful Bengaluru, stated that helium and his woman were induced into investing ample sums of wealth aft his woman came crossed an online advertisement by an entity successful mid-December 2025, promising precocious and guaranteed returns.
According to the complaint, the mates was contacted by a pistillate identifying herself arsenic Swati Verma, who claimed the concern strategy was associated with a reputed banal trader. The victims were subsequently added to a WhatsApp group, which had implicit 60 members.
Believing the strategy to beryllium genuine, the mates downloaded the ‘Stokohni’ app from the Google Play Store and, betwixt December 16, 2025, and January 5, 2026, transferred astir ₹1.98 crore done slope transfers connected antithetic dates to aggregate accounts provided by the fraudsters. The magnitude reportedly constituted their full beingness savings.
On December 31, the mates was informed that a alleged ‘loan’ of ₹40 lakh had been generated successful their relationship and needed to beryllium cleared to proceed trading. Acting successful bully faith, they paid the amount. However, erstwhile they attempted to retreat funds connected January 9, they were told to wide different alleged indebtedness of ₹70 lakh, raising suspicion.
The fraud came to airy aft the victims contacted the authoritative online trading enactment team, which informed them via email connected January 12 that the strategy was fraudulent.
The victims person present approached the authorities seeking registration of a case, probe into the slope accounts, mobile numbers and WhatsApp groups involved, and betterment of the defrauded amount. The Cybercrime Police, based connected the ailment registered an FIR against chartless persons, charging them nether the IT Act and nether cheating and impersonation nether Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) connected Friday.
