A promise of high returns landed a 40-year-old businessman from Secunderabad in a ₹61.52 lakh scam via a fake investment platform.
The victim was first approached on April 4 through a WhatsApp message claiming to be from ‘G-6 Nuvama Wealth Group’, shortly after he had entered his mobile number on a Facebook advertisement promoting an investment and stock trading application. The message directed him to a registration form hosted on an official-looking ‘Microsoft Office’ link and later to a trading website named nuvamawealthmarkets.com.
Once registered, the victim was offered IPO allotments. He was led to believe he had received 9,080 shares of ‘Tank Up Engineers’ at ₹55 each, 1,31,500 shares of ‘Arunaya Organics Ltd’ at ₹20 each, and 2,06,600 shares of ‘Virtual Galaxy Info Tech’ priced at ₹45 per share. These fake allotments were shown to amount to a total balance of ₹2.99 crore on the portal.
When he attempted to withdraw ₹56 lakh from the platform, the transaction was blocked. The fraudsters then demanded a 20% commission, amounting to ₹59.83 lakh, as a prerequisite to processing the withdrawal. Despite repeated appeals to adjust the commission from the displayed amount, the scammers insisted on upfront payment and began issuing threats, warning that failure to comply would result in blocking of his account and fund freeze.
It was only after these threats and failed withdrawal attempts that the businessman realised that he was conned. Following a complaint, the cybercrime wing of the Hyderabad police booked a case and initiated an investigation.
Published – June 11, 2025 12:36 am IST
