Pune: Investment frauds in the guise of lucrative stock market returns are on the rise, with cybercriminals swindling citizens out of crores of rupees. It has now come to light that a police constable from the Pune City Police Department fell victim to such a scam, losing seven lakh rupees.

A police constable residing in the Shivajinagar Police Colony lodged a complaint at the Shivajinagar Police Station regarding the incident. In November of last year, the constable came across an advertisement on social media promising triple returns on investments in the stock market.

Intrigued, he contacted the phone number provided in the advertisement. Cybercriminals on the other end lured him with promises of high returns on stock market investments.

The scammers directed him to download a specific app and subsequently instructed him to make investments through it. Over the past eight months, the constable transferred a total of seven lakh forty-five thousand rupees to the bank accounts specified by the fraudsters.

The app deceptively showed substantial returns on his investments, but when he attempted to withdraw the purported profits, he was unable to access the funds.

Realizing that the mobile numbers used by the scammers were now inactive, the constable understood he had been duped and filed a complaint with the police. Senior Police Inspector Chandrashekhar Sawant is currently investigating the case.

Last year, 40 cases of online share trading scams were reported. However, the current year has seen a significant increase, with 49 cases reported in January and 61 cases in February, resulting in losses of Rs 7.6 crore and Rs 10.9 crore respectively.

March had seen a further rise in such cases, indicating a growing trend in these cyber crimes. The Pimpri-Chinchwad police had arrested five individuals from Pune city for their alleged involvement in an online share market fraud scheme. This prompted authorities to investigate potential connections to Hong Kong-based fraudsters.