Chennai, May 28 (IANS): The Tamil Nadu Police's Cyber Crime Wing has cautioned people not to fall prey to online scamsters seeking to lure gullible people into parting with their hard-earned money.

In a statement on Monday, police warned people against sharing their bank credentials and other details with anyone who contacts them through phone calls or online chat.

Recently, a school teacher in Chennai's Ambattur became a victim of an online scam after she invested an amount of Rs 20 lakh believing in a Whatsapp message she received. She was asked to invest an amount of Rs 5 lakh in the stock market to start with and after some time, she received a "profit" of Rs 78,000 and was asked to invest more so that she could reap the benefits of the boom in the stock market.

The teacher invested around Rs 20 lakh but found that even after several attempts, she could not withdraw her money. She filed a complaint with the Chennai Cyber Crime Branch which registered a case under sections of the IPC and the IT Act.

A software engineer from Chennai's T-Nagar also lost Rs 65 lakh in what was an online scam similar to the one reported by the woman teacher.

Cyber Crime Wing officials told IANS that people have to be cautious in investing their hard-earned money by believing such scammers and that trading should only be done with registered and credible online stock broking firms to ensure that their money is safe.