Ghaziabad: A couple from Mahagunpuram lost Rs 56 lakh in an online gambling fraud. They transferred the money in five instalments into different bank accounts between Dec 29 and Jan 13.According to police, businessman Nishant Kushwaha’s wife, Vasudha, had received a follow request on Instagram from the handle of a man named Vihaan Sharma in the first week of Dec last year.
Sharma had also forwarded a customer support link and said the money would be safe. Sharma created various accounts for the couple to invest. A few days later, he told Vasudha that she needed to recharge small amounts on these gaming accounts and play the game. “My wife played through the man’s gaming ID ‘VIHAAN 1′. Soon she started winning and the wallet reflected a huge amount,” Nishant said. Sharma then told her that in order to receive the profits, they needed to exchange the currency and pay taxes on the winning amount. “He made us transfer a total of Rs 56,26,960 to different bank accounts,” he said. Nishant lodged a complaint on Jan 21.A senior police officer said that the first transfer of nearly Rs 5 lakh took place on Dec 29, while on Jan 2, the second transaction of nearly Rs 9 lakh was made to the fraudster. The third transaction of about Rs 21 lakh was the maximum amount transferred to the cyber con’s account on Jan 7. The fourth transaction of nearly Rs 14 lakh was made on Jan 10 and the last transaction of nearly Rs 8 lakh took place on Jan 13.“After that, Sharma asked for more money to release the amount the couple won in these purported investment games,” the officer said. He added that once they clicked on the link that Sharma provided, they landed on a casino website. ” Sharma used to win the victims and cheat them on the pretext of currency change and tax,” he said.SHO of Cyber Crime police station Santosh Tiwari said that based on the complaint filed on Jan 21, an FIR has been registered against an unknown person under section 318(4) (cheating) of BNS and relevant sections of the IT Act.
