Retired govt servant duped of ₹4 lakh in share market scam on WhatsApp

A 73-year-old retired resident of Vastrapur, Ahmedabad has filed a police complaint after being allegedly duped of ₹3.95 lakh in a sophisticated cyber fraud involving fake WhatsApp groups and fraudulent stock market investment applications.

The victim, Hareshbhai Mehta, a retired government employee, lives with his wife Harshdaben in the Judges Bungalow area. According to the First Information Report (FIR) lodged at Vastrapur police station, Mehta was lured into investing money through a WhatsApp group under the guise of making profitable returns via stock market investments.

The ordeal began on March 27, 2025, when Mehta received a message from an unknown number introducing him to an investment opportunity promising high returns through stock trading and IPOs. The message included a link, which led him to join a WhatsApp group, the group was administered by individuals, who identified themselves as Mehul Gopel and Sheshen V Ri.

The group directed Mehta to download an application purportedly named FYERS, which mimicked a legitimate trading platform. Gaining Mehta’s confidence by showing fictitious profits on the app, the fraudsters persuaded him to make multiple transfers to various bank accounts, allegedly operated under names like Prem Financial, Hi-Tech Enterprises, and Ganesh Enterprises, across Saraswat Co-operative Bank and IDFC Bank. In total, Mehta made transfers amounting to ₹3.95 lakh between April and June 2025.

The fraudsters even went so far as to show an inflated balance and demanded an additional ₹93,000 as ‘commission’ to process the withdrawal of alleged profits, claiming technical issues each time the complainant tried to retrieve his funds.

When he refused to pay further, the scammers assured him repeatedly that his money and profits would be released soon, which never happened. Growing suspicious, Mehta contacted the Cyber Helpline 1930 on June 19, 2025 and subsequently lodged a formal complaint on July 22. An FIR has been registered under relevant sections of the BNS and the Information Technology Act and further investigation is going on.