Thane: Elderly man loses Rs 5 lakh in online shares investment fraud

A 73yearold man in Maharashtras Thane city has allegedly been cheated of Rs 511 lakh by cyber fraudsters who lured him to invest in international share markets police said on Wednesday reported news agency PTIAccording to the police some individuals contacted the victim between October and November 2025 through mobile numbers that began with the international code 44 an official saidThe accused convinced the elderly man to invest in international share markets by promising high returnsThey provided him with links to certain websites and guided him to open accounts on these platforms Acting on their instructions the man invested Rs 511188 over a period of time the official said reported PTIHowever when the victim later attempted to withdraw his returns and the invested amount he received no response from the accusedBased on the victims complaint on Monday the Naupada police registered a case against five suspects under Section 3184 cheating of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita BNS and relevant provisions of the Information Technology Act the official said reported PTIA probe into the case is underway We are analysing call details bank transactions and the websites used in the fraud to trace the accused No arrests have been made so far he addedRs 200 crore international forex fraud racket busted 7 held in MaharashtraIn another case police in Maharashtra have unearthed a massive international syndicate that defrauded hundreds of people of more than Rs 200 crore by luring them into online forex and gold trading schemes officials said on Tuesday reported PTISeven persons linked to more than 50 criminal cases lodged across several states in India have so far been arrested in Maharashtra with the police suspecting the masterminds were operating the racket from outside the country they saidThe fraudsters targeted victims by building trust through matrimonial websites and social media platforms before inducing them to invest in fraudulent schemes Mira BhayanderVasai Virar Police Commissioner Niket Kaushik said at a press conference reported PTIThe breakthrough came on November 12 2025 when a police team while probing a complaint of fraud conducted a raid at the Shivsai Residency Lodge and Boarding on the MumbaiAhmedabad Highway he saidInitially five individuals were apprehended for conspiring to receive illegal funds through a network of bank accounts used for money laundering and tax evasion The police have since arrested seven persons the official saidAn investigation into the victims complaints indicated that the accused contacted individuals on various matrimonial and social media sites posing as potential partners or highnetworth investors according to the policeAfter gaining the victims confidence they lured them with promises of high profits in forex and gold trading sent links to bogusfake websites that displayed manipulated trading data and provided them mule bank accounts to deposit the investment amounts they saidOnce the money was deposited it was immediately laundered through a complex web of accounts often ending up outside India the police saidA probe into the bank accounts of the arrested accused suggested their links to 51 different crimes registered across multiple states including Mumbai Thane and Nagpur in Maharashtra Delhi Telangana Karnataka Haryana Madhya Pradesh Gujarat Rajasthan Uttar Pradesh Uttarakhand West Bengal and Goa the police saidWhile seven key suspects were in judicial custody the investigation suggested the masterminds were operating the racket from abroad the police commissioner saidOur teams are working to trace the money trail which currently exceeds Rs 200 crore We are coordinating with various state police departments and cyber cells to consolidate these 51 FIRs and identify the overseas handlers an official statedThose arrested have been identified as Roshan Kumar Siddharama Shetty Abir alias Sachir Mohammad Khan Sanad Sanjeev Das Rahul Kumar alias Kailash Rakesh Kumar Aamir Karam Sherkhan Abhishek Anil Narkar alias Gopal and Mohammad Rashid Fakir Mohammad Baloch alias Lucky the police said reported PTIThe Naigaon police have registered a case under various sections for cheating and fraud of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and the Information Technology ActThe police have appealed to people to be cautious of investment advice received through matrimonial platforms and to verify the credentials of any trading website before transferring fundsWith inputs from PTI