Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): A 32-year-old transporter from Bhopal was duped of ₹12 lakh in a honeytrap cum investment fraud after falling for an online friendship on Facebook on Friday.
The accused gained his trust and later convinced him to invest large sums of money, which turned out to be a scam.
The victim, Rahul Sharma, originally from Raisen’s Mandideep and currently residing in Karond, works in the transport business. His complaint has been registered in Bhopal Cyber Cell.
Rahul said that he received a facebook request From Ritika Sharma In August 2024, who claimed to be a Bengaluru-based fashion designer.
Ritika gained Rahul’s trust by convincing him to invest in forex trading app through daily video calls on Whatsapp. She sent a link to him which was later appeared to be fake.
Rahul said that initially he invested ₹20,000. After a few days, his trust was won by returning ₹25,000 to his account.
Later, she introduced Rahul with an agent who promised him to give huge profits with just three per cent commission. Believing the fake profits presented on the app, Rahul sent commission to the agent for each month and eventually he lost ₹12 Lakh.
When Rahul did not get any proper police assistance initially, he started probing on his own. He found 30 fake facebook IDs under the name Ritika Sharma.
Other victims, including Shubham Singh from Varanasi, who lost ₹8 lakh and Deepak Singh from England, duped of ₹24 lakh.
Police have registered a case and launched a probe to trace the fraudster.
