HYDERABAD: Investment frauds are the new trends in cyber frauds and have seen a spike during the second wave of Covid-19. People are being lured with the offer of their small investments offering lucrative returns and are finally ending up losing huge amounts.
In one such case, a 52-year-old woman from Hayathnagar, whose husband is employed with the State government, had diverted his savings and invested them in a virtual firm, without his knowledge. Initially, she got returns, but when she invested huge amounts and tried to withdraw the returns, she realised that she had been cheated. She lost around Rs 9 lakh.
ACP (Cybercrime), Rachakonda S Harinath said people were easily falling prey to offers and investing money without even verifying the company’s background. “People should choose genuine trading companies, with whom their investments would be safe,” he added.
“People who want to invest in any company can look out for genuine trading companies, verify their background and invest in them. In this way, the investment would be safe and also legal,” said S Harinath, Rachakonda.
In investment frauds, users receive links in the form of text messages or on Whatsapp. The investment will initially start with sums of less than Rs1,000 and returns are also paid on time. The entire transaction happens through virtual accounts. As the victims increase their investment, the virtual accounts show high returns, luring the victim to invest bigger amounts. When the victim tries to withdraw the returns, which are usually big, they are asked to pay various charges.
Around 30 investment fraud cases are reported every month at the three commissionerates in the city. Users receive links in the form of text messages or on Whatsapp.