Techies in crosshairs of investment fraudsters

HYDERABAD: A techie was duped of Rs. 30 lakh by a woman he befriended on Instagram, on the pretext of helping him make investments and promising good returns in a short span, the police said, adding that such investment frauds were on the rise.

The Cyberabad Police said that while this was one of several modes of investment fraud reported to the cybercrime team, the victims in most instances were techies.

Cyberabad deputy commissioner of police (Cyber Crimes) Ritiraj said that the victims’ desire to make money quickly and go up the ladder in a short period was making them easy targets for cyber fraudsters.

“In all these cases, the victims start with amounts as low as Rs. 1,000. Then the investment goes up till they find themselves neck deep into the cyber-trap. People should understand that any scheme offering huge returns in a very short period is as good as a fraud,” she said.

In the latest case, the victim, who works for an MNC, started chatting with a woman on Instagram and after a few days, the woman told him that she was investing in a scheme that was giving good returns and made him invest Rs.1,000.

As the victim doubled his investment, he started putting in more money. He was also added to a Telegram group operated by the ‘investment firm’, which put up success stories of other investors.

However, upon the returns diminishing, he decided to withdraw his investment when he was directed to another department, which made him pay more towards exit and processing charges, but without releasing his investment. Upon realising he was duped, he approached the police.

Ritiraj said that even as cybercrimes, on the whole, are on a rise, investment frauds have seen a sharper rise in recent times. “People are investing their hard-earned money and sometimes, entire life savings, in such schemes without doing proper background checks about the firms,” she said.

The police said that many victims also hesitate to report fraud due to several reasons and appealed to them to report such issues to prevent the fraudsters from duping others.

In 2022, in Cyberabad

• 657 investment frauds reported
• Rs. 22.63 crore is the estimated fraud value in total
• Rs. 75 crore is the total loss suffered by cybercrime victims