61-year-old govt official loses 1.2 crore to investment scam

New Delhi: A 61-year-old govt official was duped of nearly Rs 1.2 crore by scammers who lured him into investing in a fake UK-based online shopping portal with promises of high returns. He was induced to invest in the platform through a fake social media profile . He was scammed over a period of 78 days. The official, who works as a director and lives in Shahdara, told police that he learned about an app through a "friend" on social media. She informed him that she was a seller on the platform for the last two years and was earning significant profits through the app. "She contacted me on Oct 15 of last year and later gave me her WhatsApp number." The official also became a seller by registering himself as a buyer on the fake application. He began fulfilling orders on behalf of the app using his own funds, and his social media friend acted as a guarantor. The official added that he picked up 56 orders that were worth USD 128,679.2, and the application showed a profit. But when he tried to withdraw his money, he was informed that he couldn't pick up certain orders within the stipulated time, which damaged his credit score due to customer complaints. He was then asked to deposit Rs 35 lakh to repair the damage to his credit score and activate the withdrawal option. "I had no option but to deposit the amount. Once I deposited the money, my credit score was reinstated, and the customer service team told me I could withdraw my wallet funds. But when I submitted the withdrawal request, they informed me that I had to wait for the Rs 35 lakh deposit to reflect in the wallet, so my withdrawal was once again stopped," he said in the complaint. "I was then asked to deposit Rs 34.5 lakh to activate the withdrawal. I had to take out a loan against my provident fund to raise the required amount, exhausting all my resources," he recalled. However, the scammers kept on delaying the withdrawal on one pretext or the other. After consulting with a cousin in the UK who discovered that the app was different from the original, he eventually realised that the app was a scam.