The inspector added, “The complainant officer has made total nine transactions between February 26 and March 22, totalling Rs 59.77 lakh. In between these transactions, he was given returns of Rs 2.47 lakh to lure him into making larger investments. At one point, when he tried to make a withdrawal of Rs 40 lakh, he was asked to pay a large sum as commission. Subsequently, when he could not make any withdrawal, he realised that he had been cheated and approached police. We have launched a probe in the case.”

Online training by ‘experts’ on advanced lessons and tips on share trading, phone-based app for constant monitoring of investment and a promise of a prosperous future are some of the baits used by cyber criminals to defraud victims from Pune, in what the investigators are calling an ‘epidemic’ of online trading scams seen since the beginning of the year. As many as 110 people have lost a staggering Rs 18 crores in January and February. Probe has revealed that cyber criminals have misused names of several wealth management entities and Indian as well as foreign portfolio investors to entice victims.