Mumbai: Santacruz resident loses Rs 67.25 lakh in investment scam

The victim was added to a WhatsApp group, where he was encouraged to invest in stocks. Representation pic/iSTOCK

A 54-year-old Vaastu professional from Santacruz lost Rs 67.25 lakh in an investment scam run by a fraudulent trading firm, Lord Abbett. The company falsely claimed to invest in Indian and US stock markets. The victim was shown a fake profit of R1.43 crore on a trading app, but their account was blocked when they tried to withdraw funds, exposing the scam.

With help from Lex Ethics Associates, it was discovered that the scammers operated under multiple names. A complaint was filed on January 3, and an FIR was registered at Cyber West police station. Authorities are investigating to apprehend the accused.

Fake promises

Meena Gupta, one of the accused, lured the victim by promising to multiply his existing investments. She persuaded him to invest in Indian stocks through his Zerodha account, claiming to offer lucrative schemes. Convinced by her assurances, the victim communicated with her multiple times and followed her investment advice.

The accused in different avatars

Vijay Sharma and Karan Mehra, posing as chief analysts, further convinced the victim through phone calls and video counselling sessions. They added him to a WhatsApp group, where he was encouraged to invest over Rs 67 lakh by April 24, 2024.

Speaking to mid-day, the complainant said, "Between April 16 and May 24, 2024, I transferred R67,25,000, including the principal and service fees, to bank accounts provided by the accused. I was asked to upload transaction screenshots to their app, LHA, for verification and account updates."

As per the accused's investment schemes, the victim was directed to trade in U.S. and Indian stocks, as well as IPOs, through the LHA app. He was instructed to hold these trades until further guidance, which never came, exposing the fraud.

"I made multiple trades on their portal as advised by the accused. After each live session, the trades always showed profits ranging from 10 per cent to 300 per cent (short-term, long-term, and intraday). On May 27, 2024, my account balance on the portal was Rs 1,43,78,372, including the principal amount and profits," said the complainant.

"When I tried to withdraw funds, the portal showed the withdrawal as initiated, but the amount never reached my linked bank account. I complained to the accused, but my demat account was frozen. They removed me from all LHA WhatsApp groups and blocked me permanently. When I tried to call them, they didn't answer and blocked me on all platforms. Left with no option, I sought legal help, and my advocate began an investigation with detective Salim Charania," the complainant added.

Investigator speaks

Charania told mid-day, "These scammers attract victims by asking them to deposit funds into private accounts. They show virtual profits in their trading accounts, sometimes in lakhs or crores. When victims try to withdraw funds, they demand a high service fee and then block them. We have identified their new identities, phone numbers and bank accounts. They changed their appearance and created fake websites."

"The accused, originally linked to the Lord Abbett app, rebranded as HCG Brokers. They altered their names: Meena Gupta became Urvi Sakar, Karan Mehra became Ayushman Das, and Vijay Sharma became Sharanjit Singh. A case has been filed with the cybercrime police station at Bandra Kurla Complex after evidence was gathered by Lex Ethics Associates, led by advocates Sachin Bhaskar and Pankaj Kandhari," Charania said.