Pune man loses ₹97 lakh to online trading scam
A 53-year-old retired Indian Air Force (IAF) officer from Pune lost ₹97 lakh earlier this year after falling for a cyber scam disguised as a share trading opportunity.
It started with an online ad promising big returns, which led him to a WhatsApp group run by scammers posing as stock experts.
They convinced him to download a fake trading app that showed false profits of ₹4.4 crore, prompting him to transfer money multiple times.
Scammers pushed him to take loans
When his own savings ran low, scammers pushed him to take loans worth ₹55 lakh and later demanded a 20% tax on the fake profits—at which point he realized it was all a con and filed an FIR with cyber crime police.
Investigators have tracked the bank accounts used by the scammers across several states, including Maharashtra and West Bengal.
Authorities say there's been a rise in similar online trading scams around Pune, where fraudsters use fake apps and social media groups despite repeated warnings; police are still investigating this case and others like it.