Duo lose Rs 50 lakh in investments through social media app fraud, investigation on
Telegraph | 5 January 2026
Two Calcuttans lost more than ₹50 lakh after making investments through apps they encountered on social media platforms.
Police said one of the victims, a resident of Urbana, lost more than ₹37 lakh, while the other, a resident of Turf View Officers’ Enclave, was cheated out of a little over ₹13 lakh.
The Urbana resident, a senior citizen, reported the incident to the police in the last week of December.
According to the complaint, he was added to a WhatsApp group that already had around 400 members.
"In the beginning, we received training on identifying profitable stocks. The sessions were led by an individual named Aranabh Thakur. I made an initial deposit of ₹50,000. They later illustrated the investment's profitability and the income I was accruing," the complainant reported to the police.
Later, he was added to another WhatsApp group with 40 members.
“In this group, the complainant was asked to apply for an IPO (initial public offering) and was promised a 10% return on the amount invested in buying shares from the market. He was shown fake updates claiming that the money had been credited to his account,” said an officer of Anandapur police station, where the complaint was lodged.
According to the records from the application that the complainant has access to, his investment of ₹37 lakh looks to have expanded beyond ₹54 lakh.
However, when he attempted to withdraw the money, no amount was transferred to his bank account, prompting him to approach the police.
The other case, reported at Hastings police station late in November, mentioned that the complainant was lured into investing in an app with the promise of providing a daily 10% return on the invested amount.
After investing around ₹13.57 lakh, the complainant failed to withdraw the money.
“What is common in both cases is that the victims were trapped with false promises that were too good to be true. Investments offering daily returns or unusually high profits are often fraudulent,” said a senior officer at the cyber police station at the city police headquarters in Lalbazar.
The cops police said “greed” and “fear” make people most vulnerable and prone to making mistakes.