Naroda youth cheated of ₹12 lakh through fake trading app promising high stock market returns

Cyber criminals have duped a 24-year-old youth from Ahmedabad’s Naroda area of over ₹12 lakh by luring him with promises of high returns through a fake stock trading application. A complaint has been registered with the cyber crime police.

The complainant, Dipak Valand, works at a pharmaceutical company and was keen on earning higher profits through stock market investments. In September, while browsing social media, he clicked on an unknown link and was added to a WhatsApp group named “Mindset Masters 8043”, where members shared fake profit screenshots to gain trust.

Soon after, a woman identifying herself as Vanshika Gill contacted Dipak and convinced him to download a fake trading app named ‘UPSTOXPRO’. To build confidence, he was initially asked to invest ₹10,000, which showed a profit of ₹950 the very next day and was successfully withdrawn.

Encouraged by this, between September 2 and September 19, Dipak was persuaded to invest in IPOs and stocks through 20 separate transactions, transferring a total of ₹12,06,500 into different bank accounts. The app later displayed a wallet balance of ₹54.19 lakh, but when he attempted to withdraw the amount, the fraudsters claimed it was on hold and demanded more money.

Realising he had been cheated, Dipak lodged a complaint against the woman and the app operators. Cyber crime police have started an investigation into the case.