Karnataka Man Duped Of Rs 46.5 Lakh In Online Trading Scam
The victim came across an advertisement on social media in May this year claiming that high profits could be earned through Forex trading: Police
KARWAR: The Uttara Kannada police have arrested four individuals in connection with a large-scale Forex trading scam in which a Honnavar-based businessman was cheated of Rs 46.5 lakh through a fake online trading platform.
According to police, the victim came across an advertisement on social media in May this year claiming that high profits could be earned through Forex trading. When he contacted the number mentioned in the advertisement, he was sent a link via WhatsApp, which led to the installation of an application named M.MarketAxess.
Believing the instructions given by the accused, the complainant deposited Rs 46.50 lakh between May 28 and July 23 into multiple bank accounts shared by the fraudsters. The app later displayed a wallet balance of Rs 75 lakh, including supposed profits. However, when the victim attempted to withdraw the amount, no transaction was processed. He then realized that he had been duped. He immediately filed a complaint with the Cyber Crime Police Station.
Based on the complaint, a case (Crime No. 25/2025) was registered under IPC sections 319(2), 318(4) and provisions of the Information Technology Act, 2000 (Amendment 2023) – Section 66(2), and investigation began.
A special police team led by Cyber Crime DySP B Ashwini first arrested the key accused, Shah Alam (23), of Bihar, at Kempegowda International Airport, Bengaluru, on November 6. He was later remanded in judicial custody.
Following further investigation, the police arrested two more accused from Hyderabad on November 20 — Pinnne Shravan Kumar (35) and Vinay Kumar (35) — both working as Public Relationship Managers at a Bank and allegedly opened fraudulent accounts to facilitate the scam.
On November 22, officers arrested the fourth accused, Shemeem Akhtar (55), from Chickpet, Bengaluru. Shameem also hails from Bihar. He is suspected of luring the victim into the scam through a honeytrap approach.
All four accused are in judicial custody. Uttara Kannada Superintendent of Police Deepan MN and Additional SP Jagadish M supervised the investigation. The police have formed additional teams to trace others involved in the racket and to investigate whether similar scams have occurred in the state.
