Mangaluru: A man allegedly lost Rs 22.5 lakh in an online investment fraud. The complainant said that on Oct 15, 2024, while browsing Facebook on his mobile phone, he came across a promotional video featuring finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman, which appeared to endorse online trading. Believing the video to be genuine, he clicked on the link below it and registered his name and mobile number.Following this, he received a call from Anurag Sharma. He was instructed to deposit Rs 12,600 into the account of Sujit Kumar Singh, which he did on Oct 24. Later, another person named Nikhil Agarwal informed the complainant on Nov 4 that by investing Rs 50,000, he would receive a Rs 25,000 bonus. He then forced the complainant into transferring Rs 50,000, it is alleged.On Nov 20, Nikhil Agarwal again contacted the complainant and persuaded him to invest in cryptocurrency for higher returns. Acting on this, the complainant transferred Rs 1.50 lakh. When the complainant attempted to withdraw his money, a person named Thomas George asked him to transfer Rs 2.3 lakh. On Nov 10, the complainant made the transfer, and on Dec 12, citing a wrong IFSC code, the complainant was told to pay a penalty of Rs 2.3 lakh, which he paid.Further, on Jan 9 this year, he transferred Rs 55,004. On Feb 20, Jetting Navya contacted him, claiming that Nikhil and Thomas had defrauded him and that he was appointed by AI Trading to resolve the issue. Believing this, the complainant was asked to withdraw $60,000. This was followed by a call from Naveen Tiwari, stating the money was transferred to Parex Merchant, and he asked the complainant to show his passport and pay Rs 78,400 to retrieve the funds.Between Feb 24 and March 29, the complainant transferred large sums of money to several accounts, which included legal fees. He also transferred about Rs 3 lakh in two instalments under pressure from someone claiming to be an SBI manager from Mangaluru, and about Rs 1 lakh after being threatened with a money laundering case. In total, the accused made the complainant allegedly transfer Rs 22,59,613 across various accounts under the pretence of investments, taxes, and penalties, and then disappeared without giving any returns. A case has been registered at Kankanady Town police station.
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