MUMBAI: He could be the youngest complainant in the city to lose crores in a cyber fraud. A 21-year-old accountant, who is also a partner in a private firm, lost Rs 3.63 crore in a fake online share trading fraud over a fortnight. The complainant transferred money to the fraudsters in 24 transactions. In a single day, on March 21, he sent Rs 1.2 crore in four transactions to the suspects.
The fraud occurred between March 10 and March 25. An FIR was registered on April 24. A team led by inspector Nandkumar Gopale has initiated an investigation, successfully freezing 10 bank accounts linked to the suspects.

A police source said that a friend of the complainant told him about a person who was giving leads on share trading through WhatsApp. The complainant searched for the person’s number and communicated with them. He found an associated link online along with the number. He joined a WhatsApp group, by clicking on the link. In the group, several members were chatting about the profit they made in shares and sharing screenshots.
The complainant observed for two days before contacting the group admin, Mira Acharya. She sent him another link to join a group. He was then asked to download an application and given a login ID with a password to access it. He found a virtual account in his name. The fraudsters gave him a bank account number and asked him to send money to it. He first sent Rs 100. He saw his investment in his virtual account. The complainant was given false information about IPOs and lured with promises of huge returns, said police.
He could see his investment in the virtual account, but when he asked for a refund, the accused repeatedly demanded more money and gave evasive replies. They even removed their group’s DP and later stopped replying to the complainant’s messages. The youngster suspected something was amiss and approached the Mumbai Cyber police.
“The contact number provided to the complainant by his friend belonged to a fraudster. The complainant’s friend is also a victim and he too lost money in a similar manner,” said a police officer.
The south region cyber police station at Grant Road has registered charges including identity theft, impersonation, document forgery, cheating, and criminal conspiracy under the IT act BNS.