Facebook 'Friendship' To Telegram Fraud: How A UP Man Was Duped Of Rs 7.7 Lakh

Friendship on Facebook and advice to invest in the stock market on Telegram proved costly for a medical representative (MR). Cyber thugs swindled Rs 7 lakh 70 thousand from him by luring him with high profits. When the time came to return the money, the thugs started procrastinating. On the complaint of the victim, the Cyber Crime Police Station has registered a case and started investigation.

Prasiddha Narayan Singh, a resident of Raptinagar in Shahpur area and an MR by profession, told the police in his complaint that he got acquainted with a woman named Anushka Sharma alias Divya Ahuja on Facebook. Anushka lured him into earning huge profits by investing in the stock market.

To gain trust, the thugs first made him invest only Rs 2 thousand on a website and immediately sent the amount back to the account with some profit. After this, Anushka introduced Prasiddha Narayan to a person named Rahul Bhatnagar on Telegram. Rahul told him about a 14-stage investment plan and put a condition of 30 per cent commission on the profits made at every stage. Gradually, he got the MR to invest a total of 7 lakh 70 thousand rupees.

When 14 levels were completed and Prasiddha Narayan asked for his entire money back, Rahul put a new condition and said that to get the entire amount in the bank account, he would have to deposit 5 lakh 80 thousand rupees more. After this demand, the MR realized that he had been cheated.

Cyber police station expert Upendra Kumar Singh said that a case has been registered on the basis of the victim's complaint and investigation is being done. Details have been sought from the concerned banks about the bank accounts and UPI IDs in which the money was sent. Efforts are being made to trace the network of the fraudsters and their location through technical investigation.