Amresh Parab
Panaji
Online frauds continue to bleed Goans as two middle-aged men in two separate cases lost (combined) close to Rs 3.50 crore to fraudulent investment schemes.
A 46-year-old businessman from Curchorem in South Goa lost Rs 2,82,91,443 after he was assured high returns on investment in gold mines and market trades, whereas in the second case, a 51-year-old man from Tiswadi in North Goa lost Rs 67,00,000 in another investment fraud.
Two separate FIRs have been registered at the cybercrime police station, Ribandar.
Referring to the first case, the police said the Curchorem businessman was contacted by scamsters through three different mobile numbers. The victim was introduced to a fraudulent gold trading website called www.kdeonegold.net, offering high returns on investment in gold mines and market trades.
Further the complainant was induced to register on the website and start investment. Subsequently, the scamsters started assisting the businessman in ‘trading’, which falsely promised 15 per cent returns with 99 per cent accuracy.
The police said that under the false pretext of high returns, the complainant was lured into transferring Rs 2,82,91,443 through multiple transactions in different bank accounts.
Referring to the second case, the police said unknown accused contacted the Tiswadi man impersonating as traders and fraudulently induced him to invest in ‘Deep GTP Global ETF Investments’.
On the pretext of investment with high returns, the complainant was induced to transfer Rs 67,00,000 into multiple beneficiary accounts in October, this year.
Recently the Goa cybercrime police probing the biggest online fraud in Goa, running into Rs 4.74 crore, arrested two accused – Suraj Eknath Savat, a native of Kolhapur, and Avishkar Suradkar a taximan from Maharashtra.
In this connection the police had also summoned Malathi BN from Bengaluru.
The police said a retired employee (72) from Tiswadi had lost the money to a fake IPO (initial public offering). The retiree had come across the information pertaining to the IPO of an online payment app on a social media platform.
The complainant had told the police that accused impersonated as a qualified institutional buyer (QIB) linked to an online payment app. The accused induced the complainant to invest in the IPO, where a large number of shares were reportedly allotted to him, before August 25 this year.
