Vadodara trader cheated of ₹2 cr on promise of high returns from stocks, forex, Bitcoins

Vadodara: Investing in stocks, bitcoin, forex? Beware of fraudsters!  A Vadodara trader has lost Rs 2.08 crore in the lure of getting 25% returns on investment.

He was cheated by 12 swindlers in the name of investing in the stock market and Bitcoin. The Cyber Crime Police Station is investigating.

An investor living on Bil Chapad Road in Vadodara was approached by 12 people on social media to start trading in the stock market, IPOs, forex and Bitcoin.

They made him transfer more than Rs 4 crore and returned Rs 1.96 crore and didn’t give the remaining Rs 2 crore. The youth lodged a complaint at Cyber Crime Police Station and the police started investigations.

Dhruv Vipulbhai Shah, who hails from Dhandhuka in Ahmedabad district, trades in the stock market.  Last October, he saw an advertisement on social media, asking people interested to start their own business in stock market, IPO, forex and Bitcoin to click a link.

When he opened it, a channel called Mahadev Books opened and it said that if you invested Rs 10 lakh in the stock market, you will get 25% return per month and 15% in case of investment of Rs 1.5 lakh.

The youth expressed interest to invest Rs 2.5 lakh and gradually talked him into transferring Rs 4 crore in different accounts. He took money from relatives to invest the money between October 2020 and May 2021.

He transferred the money from his accounts in HDFC Bank, AU Small Finance Bank and Bank of India. He also transferred money from his mother’s HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and Bank of Baroda accounts.

By the time Shah realised he was being cheated, the accused had stopped taking his calls and then blocked his number.