HYDERABAD: A 72-year-old retired IAS officer was allegedly cheated of Rs 3.37 crore by cyber fraudsters pretending to be the agents of reputed companies that offer lucrative returns on investments.
The complainant told TGCSB that after an initial chat with the “Dhani website”, a woman named Arjun Mehta lured him and made him subscribe to “mutual funds, IPOs and options trading”. Based on her directions, he opened an account for stock trading.
Another fraudster, Arjun Ramesh Mehta, claimed to be the chief investment officer in charge of strategy and planning. He told the victim that he and his IT team developed AI-based MFs, recommending options trading with a 90% probability of a +10% gain by accurate AI-based analytical tools.
Arjun Ramesh would chat daily with the victim over WhatsApp at 10 am, 2 pm and 7.30 pm, presenting market trends and giving trading advice.
The victim stated that when he expressed his concern about the platform fee and the withdrawal process, the fraudsters told him, “Your total debt is around Rs 5,50,00,000, but once you complete the final settlement and process the withdrawal, the full amount of Rs 25,91,59,364.07 will be credited to your account and all your difficulties will be resolved instantly.”