Navi Mumbai businessman duped of Rs 2.74 crore in gaming scam

The Navi Mumbai police on Thursday said that a 42yearold businessman was cheated of Rs 274 crore by cyber fraudsters after persuading him to join an online gaming platform reported news agency PTIA case in this regard was registered on May 20 said a cyber crime cell officialAs per the complainant who lives in the Koparkhairane area the fraudsters lured him into depositing Rs 32484526 in a socalled gaming platform between December 2022 to April 2025 promising him attractive prizes for participating in online gamesThe Navi Mumbai businessman was asked to deposit the money in different bank accountsWhen the Navi Mumbai businessman did not win the promised prize money he realised that something was wrongHe managed to withdraw Rs 50 lakh but the rest of the money was siphoned off said the officialHe also got in touch with the gaming application company but to no avail the official said adding that further probe was onCops unearth Rs 155 cr fraud probe exposes web of fronts and genuine identitiesIn another case the police have unearthed a Rs 155 crore fraud where a group of businessmen in Nagpur allegedly registered fake companies using the genuine identities of unsuspecting persons and routed black money through Hawala transactions leading to the arrest of four individualsAn official told PTI that the scale of the fraud could be much higher as the accused had prima facie formed 50 to 60 bogus companies to commit suspicious transactionsShockingly the accused used genuine identities of needy people from various states for the criminal activityThe lid on the fraud allegedly being conducted since August 2024 was blown after a victim whose identity was used by fraudsters to register a fake company approached the policeAn FIR was registered at Lakadganj police station under various sections of the Bharatiya Nyay Samhita BNSThe complainant Biswajit Roy originally from West Bengal used to run a food stall He migrated to Nagpur following a financial crunch in June 2024 after his fathers demiseHe subsequently found himself trapped in a shocking web of financial crimeRoys friend Suraj alias Pritam Kedia introduced him to businessmen Bunty Shahu Jayesh Shahu Avinash Shahu Rishi Lakhani Anand Harde Rajesh Shahu Brijkishore Manihar and Anshul Mishra said officialsThe accused proposed to invest money in the market in Roys name and promised a monthly profit shareDesperate for work Roy agreed and submitted his Aadhaar and PAN cards He was also made to sign several documents Later he was accommodated in a warehouse owned by Rajesh Shahu in the Wathoda area an official told PTIOn August 3 2024 Avinash Shahu procured a SIM card in Roys name but kept it to himself He cited OTP verification and gave Rs 25000 to Roy as an initial profit shareThe accused used Roys identity to register a company as a smallscale industrial unit with a valid GST number They opened two accounts for this firm officials addedThe accused allegedly generated fake invoices for goods without conducting actual transactions After receiving payments from various businesses they would withdraw the amount and return it in cash creating an illusion of legitimate business activity the official said reported PTIBetween September 9 and December 30 2024 transactions worth Rs 9639 crore were madeWith inputs from PTIatOptionskeyd0ddb8ef8f1a62a8cdd22fac27fc5ea7formatiframeheight90width728params