Bengaluru man swindled of Rs 6.54 crore in online trading scam
Bengaluru: In a massive online trading scam, a director of a private company in Bengaluru has reportedly lost Rs 6.54 crore after being lured by scammers promising him a ‘1500 percent return’ on investments through a fake online stock trading app.
Senior police officers believe this incident is among the largest sums lost by an individual victim to the trading scam in the capital city this year. According to a report by Deccan Herald on Monday, the 56-year-old man whose company manufactures semiconductor LED drivers, lamps and displays, used to trade in stocks through his demat account. He received a WhatsApp message on August 11 this year from an unknown number inviting him to join ‘NUUAMA ELITE GROUP’ for “classes” on trading and investment. He was subsequently added to the group by an individual named Aniketh Nerkar.
According to the FIR, he attended online classes where investment strategies were shared for nearly a month. An officer noted that some tips shared in the group appeared to be accurate. “This is one way the scamsters convince the potential victims,” a police officer told DH, adding that they have learnt that the tips the scammers offer will be on the stocks that are already on the way up or have the potential to go up the following days.
The victim was astonished to see the “success stories” shared on the WhatsApp group and was allegedly told he would get a “1,500% return on his investments”.
The officer added that scammers post the screenshots of their gains to psychologically convince the victim that the scheme is genuine and the same happened in this case.
Eventually, Kumar began transferring money after downloading a trading app shared by the scammers. Between the start of the scam and October 14, he wired Rs 6.54 crore to 12 different bank accounts.
Throughout the process, the app displayed simulations indicating that Kumar was making significant profits from his investments. However, when he attempted to withdraw his funds, he was asked to pay Rs 2.5 crore in fees. This prompted him to file a complaint with the cybercrime police on October 16.
A senior officer told the publication that the investigators have begun freezing the primary (first beneficiary) bank accounts and tracing the money trail and added that all accounts used in this case were “mule accounts”. A team led by Tanveer SR, Assistant Commissioner of Police (Northeast CEN), is probing the case.
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Mangaluru: Maddur man finds his mother, lost 14 years ago, at nursing home in Kulshekhara
Mangaluru: White Doves Psychiatric Nursing and Destitute Home in Kulshekhara was witness to another heartwarming moment on Sunday. A mother, who was separated from her children for last 14 years due to her mental illness, was finally reunited with them.
In 2009, Corrine Antoinette Rasquinha, the founder of White Doves, received information about a mentally ill woman who was in the streets of Mangaluru. She brought the sick woman to her nursing home and provided necessary psychiatric treatment. Despite all her earnest attempts, Rasquinha could not find much about the mysterious woman, as is normal in many such cases. Farzana, the sick lady, could only say that she was from Maddur and her house was near a butcher's shop.
As there are lot of places with similar name, Rasquinha and her dedicated team at White Doves couldn't really locate the village or the family of Farzana. Despite the lack of clarity, the institution had sent people to different locations to find the woman's family. All attempts were in wain, until 2024.
After 14 years, Farzana was finally found by her family in Maddur of Mandya district. Asif, her son, got to know that his mother was at a nursing home through an acquaintance. Along with his wife and children, he came to Mangaluru to take his mother home.
Asif said that the family members had kept up their search to locate his mother for many years. When Farzana disappeared in 2009, Asif and his sister were very young. "My sister hadn't seen my mother at all. Now we are very happy that we have got her back", Asif told Vartha Bharati.
"We found Farzana in 2009. She couldn't give us any proper information then. We had lost all hopes about her going back. Two weeks ago, we reunited a woman from Maddur in Mandya with her family. We had informed them about Farzana. With their kind help, we could now reach Farzana's family", Corrine Antoinette Rasquinha said.
When she left home 14 years ago, Farzana was a young mother with two small kids. Today, she has aged prematurely and her kids are all grown up; they are married and have kids themselves. When Farzana, unable to identify her adult son, drew his three year old son into an embrace, mistaking him for his father, there were a lot of moist eyes around. Now she has set sail to her long lost home with a family that has vowed never to lose her again.
