A PAN-INDIA cyber investment fraudallegedlyinvolvingoverseas links was uneartyhed with the arrestof12people fromsixstates, police said. The accused were arrested from Odisha, Uttarakhand, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh for allegedly running a nationwide cyberinvestmentracket through WhatsApp groups, SP (Rural) Amrit Jain said on Saturday. Working in coordination with the Ministry of Telecommunications, theAligarh cyber crime cell identified around 600 WhatsApp groups that were allegedly being used tolure andcheatinvestorsacross the country, Jain said. Police claimed that timely action helped prevent an estimated fraudofaboutRs500crore that could have affected more than 1.5lakhpeoplenationwide.

 

The case came to light after DineshSharma,a retired deputy general manager of Punjab National Bank, approached the cyber crime cell on January 31 and reported that he had been cheated of over Rs 11 lakh through a WhatsApp-based investment scheme, the SP said. According to police, Sharma was allegedly lured with promisesofreturnsofup to 40percent per week. Though initially reluctant, he invested Rs 5,000 as a trial amount on December 16 last year and received returns, whichincreased his confidence, officials said.