Mumbai: A woman loses ₹2.40 lakh in a forex trading scam after falling victim to an Instagram scam

The 34-year-old lady never imagined that she would fall victim to a fraudster after seeing a friend’s Instagram post. The victim was invited to contact on a Telegram ID after seeing the Instagram post detailing her earnings of Rs 7.80 lakh. The fraudster then persuaded the victim to pay Rs 2.40 lakh in exchange for profitable forex trading returns. When the victim called her pal after not receiving her money, she discovered that her Instagram account had been hacked.

The victim lives in Qureshi Nagar in Kurla, the police said. The victim saw her old friend’s Instagram page on March 18 when she was at home. In a post, the aforementioned profile claimed that on March 17, Rs 7.80 lakh had been deposited to her bank account and invited viewers to DM her for more information. The victim then struck up a conversation with her “friend” to find out more about how she was able to make so much money.

victim tricked by links on social media into falling for a complex scam

After that, the “friend” directed her to another Instagram account and requested that the victim get in touch with it. After connecting with the aforementioned Instagram person, the victim was told to get in touch with a Telegram user who promised to help her learn how to trade forex for profit. The con artist said that the victim would be eligible to receive Rs 8 lakh if she invested Rs 20,000. The victim was then sent a link by him to download an app and create a trading account on her phone.

The victim invested Rs. 20,000 after following the instructions, and she was able to see her profits on the specified trading account. Nevertheless, the victim was unable to take her profits out when she attempted to. Then, in order to receive her profits, she had to pay more money. After spending Rs 2.40 lakh, the victim contacted her buddy to find out why she had not received her money and was surprised to learn that her Instagram account had been hacked.

After that, she went to the police, and on Thursday, an offense was reported in the case. Sections 419 (cheating by personation), 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing surrender of property), 66C (identity theft), and 66D (cheating by personation by exploiting computer resources) of the Information Technology Act are among the laws under which the police have filed a case.