Mumbai: Woman Falls Victim To Instagram Scam, Loses ₹2.40 Lakh In Forex Trading Fraud

A 34-year-old woman who had come across an Instagram post of her friend never thought that she would be falling into the trap of a scammer. The Instagram post had details about how she earned Rs 7.80 lakh after which the victim was asked to communicate on a Telegram ID and the scammer then induced the victim to pay Rs 2.40 lakh for lucrative returns in forex trading. However, when the victim did not get her money, she called her friend only to find that her Instagram account had been hacked.

According to the police, the victim is a resident of Qureshi Nagar in Kurla. On March 18, when the victim was at home, she came across the Instagram profile of her old friend. The said profile had a post which stated that Rs 7.80 lakh had been credited in her bank account on March 17 and asked viewers to DM her to know more. The victim then began chatting with her 'friend' to inquire further how she earned so much money.

Victim lured into elaborate scam through social media connections

The 'friend' then gave her a reference to another Instagram ID and asked the victim to contact that ID. The victim then got connected with the said Instagram user who asked her to contact a Telegram user, who in turn assured the victim to guide her in earning money through forex trading. The scammer told the victim that if she would invest Rs 20000, she would be entitled to earn Rs 8 lakh. He then shared a link with the victim and her to download an app on her phone and open a trading account.

The victim followed the said instructions and after investing Rs 20000, she could see her earnings on the said trading account. However, when the victim tried to withdraw her earnings, she was unable to do so. She was then asked to pay more money in order to get her earnings released. The victim ended up paying Rs 2.40 lakh and when she did not get her money, she called up her friend and was shocked to know that someone had hacked her Instagram account.

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She then approached the police and got an offence registered in the matter on Thursday. The police have registered a case under sections 419 (cheating by personation), 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) of the Indian Penal Code and  66C (identity theft), 66D (cheating by personation by using computer resource) of the Information Technology Act.