An ex IAS officer of Manipur cadre has fallen victim to a cyber fraud losing ₹1.87 crore. This is an addition to string of online fraud cases where senior IAS officers have been victimised. Interestingly, the former IAS fell victim to online fraud twice.
What was fraud case
In the first fraud case, frauders trapped the retired officer by sending him an invitation on Facebook Messenger first. When he accepted the invitation, he was directed to a Telegram group created to offer tips on investment in stocks.
The fraudsters gained his trust and confidence and assured him that they will help him in gaining profits from investment.
Initially, he invested small amounts in online trading and gained some profits. This enhanced his confidence in fraudsters. From small amounts to big denominations, the ex-IAS continued investing as per the
directions of the fraudsters. The ex-IAS went on to invest ₹ 15 lakh in a single transaction, only to realise that he was duped. On his complaint, Hyderabad cybercrime police had registered a case, which is still being probed.
Woman drew Ex-IAS to second fraud
Even after realising that he had lost money in online fraud, the former IAS didn't learn from his previous mistake.
Police said that the ex-IAS first received a friend request on Messenger from a woman. After some time, the two started chatting through Whatsapp. The woman gained his confidence and told him that she was into online trading. The ex-IAS confided with her that he had lost some money in an investment fraud in the recent past. The woman assured him that she will help him get regain the loss. For that she asked him to open a trading account and later added him to the Telegram group.
The ex-IAS initially made some profit when he deposited ₹50,000. The profit was reflected in the virtual account. Enthused by this, he went on to invest ₹ 50 lakh in the virtual online platform. Later received a message from the platform that he had made a profit of ₹67 lakh. When he attempted to withdraw the profits, he was asked to pay more amounts towards various charges, and he continued paying till he paid 1,87,76,000.
When the ex-officer was not able to withdraw the amount from the virtual trading account, he tried contacting the customer care of the platform, but to no avail. The woman, who introduced him to the platform, also stopped responding to his messages.
The police is investigating the case verify in the bank account in which the former IAS had deposited the money online. So far the police has got no clue.
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