Mumbai: A chemicals consultant from the western suburbs was duped of nearly Rs 3 crore in an investment scam by some individuals, one of whom posed as ex-chairman of Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE). The north region cyber police registered an FIR against four unknown persons on May 3.The complainant is 73. On Dec 16, 2024, he received a WhatsApp text from a group called Future Outlook. On opening it, his number got added to the group. One of the group admins introduced herself as Aryaa Anand and said a former chairman of BSE named Ravi was co-admin. She told the complainant they ran an OTC (over-the-counter) platform. OTC trading involves participants dealing directly with one another without a central exchange.The next day, the complainant got some documents on the OTC platform’s letterhead and was convinced of authenticity. He also got a link for downloading an OTC trading app. After he downloaded it and entered personal information in it, a video call was made by the fraudsters to verify his Pan card details. The complainant was given an offer to purchase block deal shares via the OTC platform at low rates. A block deal transaction involves buying or selling a large number of securities in a single transaction. Anand advised the complainant to sell his demat shares and invest his money via the OTC platform to earn big profits. On Dec 20, the complainant invested Rs 20,000 through the OTC app and sold off the shares within 3 days.He made a profit of Rs 2,864 which he was able to withdraw. Between Dec 2024 and Jan 2025, he invested Rs 2.9 crore via the OTC app. The amount invested was displayed on the app.The complainant was overjoyed when the app showed a profit of Rs 25 crore. He sought to withdraw investment of Rs 2.9 crore, but was asked to pay Rs 8 lakh. He paid it to Anand via RTGS. But he was not able to withdraw, and Anand asked him to pay 20% commission on the full sum. He then realized he had been duped.