New Panvel Logistician Duped of Rs 1.09 Crore in Online Stock Trading Scam
A 51-year-old logistician residing in New Panvel, Navi Mumbai, was defrauded of Rs 1.09 crore in an online stock market trading scam after cybercriminals promised him high returns on investments. The fraud, which took place between March 26 and June 3, led to the registration of a First Information Report (FIR) at the Navi Mumbai Cyber police station on June 5, 2026.
The deception began on March 26 when the complainant clicked on a social media advertisement offering high returns on share trading. The link added him to a WhatsApp group managed by administrators named R Venkat Raman and Tina Malhotra.
Malhotra provided the victim with information and shared a link to register a Direct Market Access (DMA) account. To gain his trust, she sent him a registration form featuring a Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) registration number of a leading financial services company. Raman then guided him through the WhatsApp group on which shares to buy, directing him to download a specific trading application.
The victim began online trading on April 2, transferring funds to a bank account he was told belonged to SEBI. Over the next two months, as the application virtually displayed rising profits, he was induced to transfer more money. Between April 2 and June 1, he transferred a total of Rs 1.09 crore to various bank accounts for share purchases, block trading, IPO purchases, brokerage, taxes, and security deposits.
On June 1, when the victim attempted to withdraw his displayed profits, Malhotra stopped responding to his messages. Suspicious, the victim visited the company's office in Andheri on June 3, where officials informed him that no such employee worked there and no DMA account existed in his name.
Following the discovery, the victim filed a complaint on the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal. Senior Inspector Vishal Patil of the Navi Mumbai Cyber police station stated that the police have registered a case for cheating and criminal breach of trust, and have begun tracing the bank accounts to freeze the transferred funds.
