Pune: Online fraudsters promised handsome returns on investment in online share trade and cheated a 70-year-old retired state govt officer of Rs1.4 crore.The victim, a resident of Kothrud, lodged a complaint with the Pune cyber police on Sunday evening and told them that the cheating took place between Nov 2025 and Feb, this year.Senior inspector Swapnali Shinde of Pune cyber police said, “The victim stays in Kothrud. His two married daughters stay close by in the same area.”The complainant said his cellphone number was added to a messaging app, where members would discuss high returns gained from online trading of shares. The members always conveyed gratitude to the group admin for his tips. “The victim was impressed with the amount of profit the members would discuss and decided to contact the group admin, who sent him a link of an online share-trading app. It is simply an app that manipulated the screen,” Shinde said.“Initially, the man bought shares of lesser value and failed to make any profit. He contacted the group admin, who told him to invest in high value shares and IPOs to earn well,” she said.The group admin promised to buy shares on the victim’s behalf and shared seven different bank account numbers. The man transferred money till he exhausted all his savings. He broke his fixed deposits to pay the fraudsters. Shinde said the victim made 45 high-value transfers of Rs1.4 crore and lost it all.
