Hyderabad: The Hyderabad cyber crime police apprehended a 23-year-old man from Uttar Pradesh involved in an investment fraud, stock trading. He was involved in nine cases across India including one case pertaining to Hyderabad Cyber Crimes.

The police arrested Prateek Shukla, a resident of Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh who worked as the account supplier.

According to the police, a 68-year-old male victim from Hyderabad filed a complaint stating that he was cheated by three bogus online investment companies – 5paisa Capital Ltd, Barclays and Shanda Capital Group Ltd. The victim was added to a WhatsApp group through a link called VIP 5paisa Group. In that group, Priya Agrawal and Gourav Munjal as assistants registered new members through their fake app and recommended upper circuit shares, IPOs, and OTC trading.

By sharing fake screenshots in the WhatsApp group, the new members get motivated to invest and gain profit. Believing them to be genuine the victim deposited an amount multiple times totaling to Rs 52,29,500. Following the complaint, cyber crime police registered a case U/sec 66 C, 66 D IT Act, and Section 111(2) (b), 308(2), 318(4), 319(2), 336(3), 338, 340(2) of BNS and investigated.

The cyber crime police said that fraudsters contact victims through social media platforms, Telegram app, WhatsApp calls and messages and offer double or triple profits in a short time through stock market trading.

They display huge returns in their application initially, allowing withdrawals to a certain extent to build trust. They show virtual profits to lure victims to invest more and later blocks withdrawals once larger amounts are invested.

To protect themselves from cyber crime and financial fraud, police urged the citizens to be cautious of online stock trading suggestions and investment frauds and offers like – huge returns in short term, multi bagger stock suggestions, investment in IPOs and mutual funds. If you are a victim of cyber crime fraud, immediately dial 1930 (or) visit https://cybercrime.gov.in/ for assistance.