Neighbour Installs Fraud App, Loses Rs 19L Along With Victim
Ironically, the neighbour who convinced them to invest was also duped.
Hyderabad:A Khammam family, along with their neighbour and a close relative, was cheated of Rs 19.15 lakh in a fake investment scheme run through a mobile application named Centrum HNI. Ironically, the neighbour who convinced them to invest was also duped.
The neighbour had installed the app on the complainant’s wife’s phone and created an account using her Aadhaar, PAN, live photo and signature. She claimed to have secured large share allotments, first in Atlanta Electricals for an initial investment of Rs 3,97,670, and later in Pace Digitek Ltd, which required much larger sums.
Short on funds, the complainant and his family deposited money into the wife’s account, even persuading her sister and co-brother to contribute. At one point, they mortgaged gold ornaments to raise `15.5 lakh, believing they were trading legitimately and earning profits.The fraudsters displayed inflated account balances and staged fake IPO listings to build trust.
The app dashboard showed fictitious profits — first `9 lakh and later up to `95 lakh. When the victims attempted withdrawals, they were told to pay “short-term taxes” and “processing charges,” and were further misled by middlemen promising cash payouts for commissions.
After repeated payments and failed withdrawal attempts, the victims realised they had been cheated. The complainant, his wife, and co-brother filed complaints through the National Cybercrime Reporting Portal and with the Telangana Cyber Security Bureau in Khammam.