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Chandigarh Man Loses Rs 15 Lakh in Telegram Trading Scam; Police Open Probe

Officials describe a playbook of fake dashboards with withdrawal-time fees that is driving high-value cases across Indian cities.

Overview

  • The Chandigarh victim, Bhanu, was contacted on Telegram by a person calling himself Prashanth Sree, invested Rs 15.17 lakh after an initial Rs 15,000 payout, and was then told to pay a Rs 2.44 lakh “verification fee” before losing access to funds.
  • The Cyber Crime police in Sector 17 have registered the complaint and are tracing the bank accounts used in the fraud, though no suspects have been identified.
  • Hyderabad cybercrime officials report roughly 10 investment-scam cases a month, with recent losses per case ranging from about Rs 20 lakh to Rs 2 crore, including a software engineer who reported losing over Rs 1 crore last month.
  • Investigators say many operations are directed from overseas call centres, including in Taiwan, with Indian associates routing money through mule accounts tied to states such as Rajasthan and Bihar.
  • Authorities advise checking SEBI’s register of approved platforms, downloading apps only from official stores, and rejecting payment requests made outside a platform’s own dashboard.