Daijiworld Media Network – Mangaluru/Udupi
Mangaluru/Udupi, Feb 24: Two separate cases of online investment fraud have been reported from Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts, with victims losing a total of over Rs 24 lac to cyber fraudsters.
In the first case, a 37-year-old woman lodged a complaint at the Mangaluru CEN Crime police station stating that she lost Rs 19.06 lac after being duped through a fraudulent investment mobile application.
According to her complaint, she came across an advertisement on her mobile phone offering attractive investment opportunities. After searching for the related website, she downloaded an APK file and registered on the app by providing her bank account details. The app displayed information about various companies and prompted her to invest, with a minimum investment requirement of Rs 1 lac and no upper limit.
Believing the scheme to be genuine, she began investing in phases from January 2024, eventually transferring a total of Rs 19.06 lac over two years. Initially, she received partial returns amounting to nearly Rs 1 lac until January 2026, which reinforced her trust in the platform. However, she later found her bank account blocked. Upon enquiry with the bank and subsequent approach to the police, she realised that she had fallen victim to cyber fraud.
A case has been registered and investigation is in progress.
In a similar incident, a 29-year-old man from Belagavi district, currently residing in Kundapura, was allegedly cheated of Rs 5.39 lac in an online investment scam. A case has been registered at the Kundapura Rural police station.
The complainant, Parashuram Lamani (29), stated that on February 18 he received a phone call from a woman who identified herself as Kaveri. She allegedly persuaded him to click on a link and participate in online “tasks”, claiming that she had earned significant profits through the platform.
Trusting her claims, Lamani transferred Rs 2 lac via RTGS on February 19 to a bank account in the name of Ghulam Hussain. On February 20, he transferred Rs 2.4 lac via RTGS to an account held by Monu Yadav and Rs 99,200 to another account belonging to Kuldeep. In total, he transferred Rs 5,39,200. However, he neither received any returns nor recovered the invested amount and later realised he had been cheated by unknown cyber fraudsters.
Based on his complaint, Kundapura Rural police have registered a case under Section 318(4) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and Sections 66(C) and 66(D) of the Information Technology Act.
Further investigation is under way.