HYDERABAD: Lured by an advertisement on Instagram that promised high returns in stock market investment, a 23-year-old software engineer joined a WhatsApp group that purportedly promoted one Rajiv Ambani, the Chief Investment Officer of ICICI Securities, who was contesting in an international stock profit competition.
The victim was promised high returns if he voted for Ambani in the contest, which he could then use to invest in IPOs. However, the engineer was scammed by the conmen and suffered a loss of Rs 5.76 lakh.
After joining the WhatsApp group, he was asked to download an application on Google Play (which no longer exists) from where he can continue investing. He was also encouraged to vote for Ambani on a daily basis so he could receive 5,000 credits per week.
Over time, the victim also took a loan of Rs 1 lakh from the domain so he could invest in IPOs. He was told that he got a profit of Rs 1.20 lakh and it reflected as Rs 2.40 lakh on the application.
He withdrew Rs 5,000 to check if the application was authentic. When he was able to gain a profit, he started trading more based on the suggestions given by the conmen. All the profits were shown on his profile in the application. But when he wanted to withdraw the profits he was asked to repay the loan.
Later, he found that IPOs were getting allocated without him even applying for it and that affected his credit score. When he started raising questions about the same to the representative, he was blocked and the application stopped functioning, alleged the victim.
Based on media reports, a similar scam under Rajiv Ambani’s name took place in Bengaluru in April, where a doctor and a businessman collectively lost over Rs 69 lakh.
The Cyberabad Cyber Crime police registered a case under IPC Section 420 and Section 66-D of the IT Act on charges of cheating by personation. Further investigation is on.