Hyderabad: A 43-year-old private sector employee from Alwal was duped of over Rs 70 lakh in an elaborate online stock trading scam.

According to police officials, the victim was targeted by cyber fraudsters who posed as representatives of Zerodha, a well-known legitimate trading platform.

The fraud, which unfolded over nearly a month, began when the victim was contacted via WhatsApp by individuals identifying themselves as Hanan Delvi and Ishita Paul.

The scammers convinced him to download what they claimed was the official ‘Zerodha’ trading app through a web link.

Trusting their instructions, the victim proceeded to transfer a total of Rs 72.55 lakh to multiple bank accounts provided by the fraudsters between April 30 and May 26.

To build trust and legitimacy, the fraudsters initially returned Rs 1.73 lakh as purported ‘profits’ to the victim on May 14. However, when he later attempted to withdraw Rs 15 lakh, he was informed that his account had accumulated ‘profits’ of Rs 2.19 crore.

The scammers then demanded an additional Rs 43.93 lakh as a ‘tax payment’ before the funds could be released.

Alarmed by the exorbitant tax demand, the victim visited the genuine Zerodha office in Begumpet, where he discovered that both the trading app and his supposed trading account were fake.

Realising he had been cheated, he promptly reported the incident to cybercrime authorities through the 1930 helpline and filed a formal complaint with Cyberabad cybercrime sleuths.

Based on his complaint, a case was registered at Cyberabad Cyber Crime Police Station on Friday under multiple sections, including 318(4) (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), 319(2) (cheating by personation), 336(3) (forgery for purpose of cheating), 338 (forgery of valuable security, will, etc.), 340(2) (using as genuine a forged document or electronic record), r/w 3(5) (common intention) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), and section 66-D of the IT Act.

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