Senior citizen from Bangalore joins training session online to learn stock investment, ends up losing Rs 6 crore

A senior citizen from Bangalore was duped into losing Rs 6.41 crore through an elaborate online investment scam. The fraudsters, posing as investment trainers, lured the victim via WhatsApp with promises of high returns and professional stock market insights.

In Short

• The victim in his greed also ended up taking loan
• However, when he tried to withdraw his profits he was logged out
• According to police, scammers created fake SEBI documents to trick the victim

In yet another case of an online scam, a senior citizen from Bangalore lost Rs 6.41 crore after falling prey to an online investment fraud. The victim was connected with the fraudsters via WhatsApp and fell into their trap in the hope of learning stock market investments and strategies through online training sessions.

The victim's ordeal reportedly began on July 19 when he was first contacted on WhatsApp by an unknown individual, according to a report by Bangalore Mirror. The user introduced herself as Meera Patel, claiming to be a key member of an investment group on the platform. She further connected the victim with other handlers of the group, identified as Hardik Shah and Ashish Goyal, who posed as representatives of the "International Equity Fund" — a firm they claimed was a Delaware-based investment advisory company registered in India as a Foreign Portfolio Investor.

After introducing themselves, the scammers offered to conduct training sessions for the victim, promising extravagant returns on investments — reportedly up to 700 per cent.

Believing it to be a legitimate group and hoping to learn more about the stock market and investments, the victim fell for their words. Following victims' agreement on taking part in the group, the scammers organized extensive and seemingly professional online training sessions over a span of 15 days. During these sessions, the victim, along with other group members, was added to a WhatsApp group where the fraudsters, masquerading as investment experts, shared stock market strategies. They allegedly provided them with guidance on stock recommendations, IPO allotments, and block trading. These sessions seemed legitimate to the victim and he got further entangled in the scam.

During the sessions, the fraudsters pressured the victim into investing large sums of money, initially for preferential stock allotments and IPO subscriptions. Later, to "unlock" the promised profits, they demanded additional "security deposits," claiming that these payments were necessary for high-frequency trading advantages. Convinced by the sessions and in hope to get some heavy returns, the victim began transferring funds. However, the fraud did not stop there.

As his initial investments failed to yield any significant returns, the victim’s desperation to recover his money grew. In a bid to reclaim his losses, he borrowed heavily from family and friends, securing loans worth Rs 3.2 crore, including Rs 70 lakh as part of the escalating demands from the scammers. However, when the victim attempted to withdraw his investments, despite having deposited a total of Rs 6.41 crore, his account on the IEF platform was suddenly locked without explanation. His repeated attempts to contact Meera Patel and her associates were futile, as they became evasive and eventually disappeared.

The report notes that during the police investigation, the officials revealed that in this particular case the scammers operated using multiple phone numbers, bank accounts, and a fabricated online portal that displayed fake transactions to simulate profits. To further establish credibility, the scammers even provided falsified documents, such as a purported SEBI registration certificate and an office address in Mumbai, both of which are now under scrutiny and suspected to be fake.