According to police, both Sarkar and his 27-year-old son were cancer patients and the latter decided to invest in stocks to finance their treatment and his post-retirement lifestyle. He was investing regularly through his demat account, they added.
Sarkar claimed that he was earning decent money till last year. “In December, I came across a link on Facebook inviting people to attend a free online course on stock trading. I attended the course to learn new things and the organisers then added me to a WhatsApp group. I was even given a certificate on attending the course which I later realised was fake,” Sarkar said.
“The webinar’s organisers added me to a WhatsApp group where I would get suggestions about stocks which were doing good in the market. I also saw other members sharing their experience on the group. The organisers soon suggested that if we invested through an institutional trading platform we would benefit more.”
Sarkar, who works with the Calcutta State Transport Corporation (CSTC), alleged that the accused divided the members into six Telegram groups. “They called it ‘Unified Organisational Layout Plan’ and we started investing into stocks via an institutional trading platform called ‘Zoksa’. They suggested that we should sell off all our insurance policies and stocks that we were investing in and then invest through them…. At that time, my Zoksa account showed that my money was invested in US stocks and my investments had reached Rs 1 crore. So, I kept investing through the company,” Sarkar said.
“However, when I tried to withdraw the money, I couldn’t. When I raised the issue with them, they gave me Rs 10,000. I got more suspicious when they said to withdraw the entire amount only if I pay a tax. On February 2, they told us that we can withdraw all the money after we pay Rs 13 lakh as tax and get a tax clearance certificate…Why would I pay tax to them before withdrawing the money. When I tried contacting other members of the Telegram group, I found most of the numbers were contact details of international call centres,” he said.
Between January 16 and 28, Sarkar said he lost around Rs 20 lakh. “I have lost all my hard-earned money and savings. I had sold the stocks I had personally invested in. I later realised that most members in the group were fake and a part of an organised gang only. I have filed a police complaint,” said Sarkar.
Kolkata police’s cyber cell said that it received the complaint on February 9 and has initiated a probe into the case. “We have received a complaint (from Sarkar) and are investigating it. However, we must tell people that any established company wouldn’t ask them to invest through a platform like Telegram or Whatsapp. Also, they should not respond to messages from unknown numbers. If someone suddenly adds you to an unknown WhatsApp or Telegram group, leave it immediately,” said a Kolkata police official.