The Ahmedabad Cyber Crime Branch has officially registered three high-volume financial fraud cases after residents were collectively swindled out of nearly ₹98 lakh. The separate incidents, spanning fraudulent stock trading networks, international currency manipulations, and deceptive cryptocurrency groups on Telegram, have prompted specialized task forces to execute deep audits on multiple mule accounts.
The back-to-back extractions highlight an aggressive surge in automated social engineering across Gujarat’s commercial hub.
Registration Begins for FutureCrime Summit 2026, India’s Largest Cybercrime Conference
The Naroda Autorickshaw Trader’s Crypto Loss
The largest single extraction targeted Naresh Kamlani, a 38-year-old businessman from Vishnu Park in Naroda who manages an autorickshaw retail showroom in Shahpur. According to the First Information Report (FIR), Kamlani was added to an unverified Telegram group promoting high-yield foreign investment portfolios, specifically focusing on a cryptocurrency trading firm allegedly headquartered in Canada.
Following instructions from anonymous account administrators, Kamlani registered on a synthetic digital platform and began systematically transferring funds in the form of Tether (USDT). Over a two-month window, the trader deposited a net sum of ₹98 lakh across several designated bank accounts. The deception unraveled when his repeated withdrawal requests were blocked by the system interface, followed by a ransom message from the group admin demanding an additional upfront payment of ₹8.34 lakh to unlock his dashboard.
The Vastrapur Manufacturer’s Commodity Trap
In a parallel development under the city’s jurisdiction, a 54-year-old water pump manufacturer residing in the premium Vastrapur locality filed an official complaint detailing a massive financial compromise. The victim had originally been approached on Facebook by an individual masquerading as a certified international asset allocation adviser.
The fraudster built technical trust by guiding the manufacturer through micro-investments in global fiat currencies, gold indices, and commodities. Initially, the custom application displayed heavily inflated, simulated profits to induce deeper capital injections. Convinced by the interface, the industrialist transferred large tranches via online banking channels. Shortly after the transfers were cleared, the operators rebranded the digital platform overnight, deactivated the customer support helpline, and froze all remaining balances, leaving the victim with zero recovery routes.
The High-Yield Stock Block Racket
The third registered case involved a senior corporate executive who was added to an unverified WhatsApp group claiming to hold direct contractual quotas for Tier-1 domestic stock market shares. The syndicate deployed fabricated institutional credentials, regulatory registration seals, and fake corporate allocation letters to establish absolute authority.
The victim was instructed to install an external digital application link to bypass standard retail brokerages and trade on an internal credit registry. After transferring multiple lakhs to a series of shell company bank nodes across India, the executive discovered that the entire trading infrastructure was a closed-loop simulation designed solely to absorb capital.
Enforcement Crackdown and Multi-State Tracking
Following the registration of the three complaints, the Ahmedabad Cyber Crime Branch has initiated comprehensive digital forensic tracking routines. Specialized units are auditing the Virtual IP (VIP) access trails of the suspect Telegram and WhatsApp communication blocks, while coordinating with banking compliance divisions to execute emergency lien freezes on the identified receiver nodes.
Cybercrime units frequently warn residents against investment invitations originating from unverified social media handles. Law enforcement authorities emphasize that legitimate asset brokerages, banking entities, and digital asset exchanges do not use private Telegram channels or WhatsApp groups to solicit capital, coordinate private hand-loans, or demand secondary processing fees to authorize routine financial withdrawals.
