Mira Bhayandar: A 56-year-old woman who works as a teacher in a Mira Road-based school, became the latest victim of a well-designed plot hatched by cyber crooks who duped her of a whopping Rs 55.99 lakh by luring her into investing in a fake stock trading application. Notably, the crooks impersonated as stock market experts and conducted online tutorials and gave trading tips on a WhatsApp group before enticing the victim to invest in multiple companies and earn high profits.

About The Case

In her statement to the police, the complainant said that while watching reels on YouTube, she came across an advertisement tagged with a link offering stock trading tips and guidance for guaranteed returns on investments. When the woman clicked on the link, she was added to a WhatsApp group having 245 members who were sharing screenshots of their investments and profit-sharing experience.

A novice in stock trading, the woman expressed her desire of learning the nitty-gritty of the trade with the group admin. She was later added to another limited member group in which crooks posing as stock market experts imparted training while offering trading tips. The woman was then asked to download a trading application and start investing. days. She fell for the trap and went on to invest Rs 55,90,594 via 21 transfer transactions to specified bank accounts within a span of less than four months between November 2024 and February 2025.

Although she could see her profits soaring, she was unable to conduct any withdrawals. When questioned, the group admin asked her to transfer more money to withdraw her investments. Realising she was duped, the woman registered a complaint at the Naya Nagar police station. An offence under the relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita and Information Technology Act against the cyber crooks on 6, April.  Further investigations were underway.