Retired bureaucrat loses Rs 1.89 cr to investment fraud in Hyderabad
HYDERABAD: A highly-placed retired government official residing in Hyderabad was recently defrauded of Rs 1.89 crore in a forex trading scam. Only a few months ago, he lost over Rs 40 lakh in a similar cyber fraud, the police said.
In his official complaint to the police, the victim revealed that he had suffered monetary losses through investment fraud in 2023. Subsequently, he was looking for ways to recover his losses when one Pratibha Rao approached him on social media claiming to have four years of experience in forex trading.
Pratibha Rao told him that she has been trading on Fortune Global and a few other platforms for the past few years and assured him that he could earn high returns in very less time.
“Having previously lost money online, the retired officer was initially apprehensive,” said Hyderabad Cyber Crime DCP D Kavitha and added, “However, she convinced him by suggesting that he could trade along with her and they would make more profits as she had experience in forex trading.”
Believing Pratibha, the victim opened accounts on the suggested platforms and started trading along with her. “Seeing that they were making profits, he soon invested Rs 50 lakhs in a span of 10-15 days between the months of February and March,” the DCP said. The victim was made to believe that he had earned a profit of Rs 67 lakhs.
At this point, he wanted to withdraw his profits. Pratibha told him he would be able to recover his original deposit and the profits but he had to pay a Rs 20 lakh tax, currency exchange fee, insurance fee and security fee to withdraw his profits.
“The retired officer made all the payments amounting to a total of Rs 1.89 crore; yet the cyber fraudsters asked him to keep making more payments,” the DCP shared. Realising that he was duped of his money, the victim approached the police. A case has been registered a case and investigation is on.