Hyderabad: A doctor, who was planning to upgrade his clinic to a hospital, fell into an investment fraud trap and was duped of over 30 lakh. The fraudsters lured him to invest in different stocks through an app, which also showed him substantial profits. However, when he tried to withdraw his profits, he was asked to pay a commission, making him realise that he was duped. He lodged a complaint with the Rachakonda Cyber Crime wing.
According to police, the 37-year-old doctor from Uppal was added to a WhatsApp group in the first week of Jan 2025. The group shared stock recommendations, initially yielding profits. Later, they introduced him to pre-market trading and US stock access, including IPOs. Believing it was genuine, he started investing with an initial 1,00,000 and made a 12,572 profit on it, a Cyber Crime officer said.
Seeing the organisers exchanging rupees for dollars for US stock trading without any charges, he continued investing more in large denominations, further making profits. Gradually, when he made 50 lakh in profits, the fraudsters asked him to pay 15% of the profit as tax, and he paid them 9 lakh. However, when asked to pay 5% more to be eligible to withdraw his profits, the doctor realised that he was duped, the officer added.
Police found that the doctor made transactions starting from the first week of Jan until the last week of Feb and transferred amounts to different accounts located at various branches in Madhya Pradesh and Bihar. “These could be mule accounts used by the fraudsters to siphon money from the victim. People are advised not to believe in such lucrative investment offers executed only through apps,” the officer added.
