A resident of Dadanagar in Kanpur has lost Rs 15.21 lakh after being drawn into an online share trading scheme by a fraudster posing as an investment advisor on social media, with a preliminary investigation revealing that the bank account used to receive part of the money had already accumulated nearly Rs 94 lakh in suspicious transactions and was linked to five cybercrime complaints registered across different states. Police have registered an FIR under provisions of cheating and the Information Technology Act and are tracing the full network behind the fraud.
How the Social Media Approach Was Engineered
The fraud began with contact from a social media account operating under the name Aditi Sharma, presenting itself as that of an experienced investment advisor. The accused did not rush the approach. Gupta initially declined to invest, but sustained communication, attractive profit projections and repeated assurances of high returns gradually eroded his resistance, a technique investigators identify as grooming for financial fraud rather than a one-time pitch.
Once Gupta agreed, the mechanics moved quickly. Fraudsters instructed him to transfer money in multiple instalments across different bank accounts and QR codes, a fragmentation strategy designed to reduce the per-account transaction volume and stay below the thresholds that trigger banking alerts. He transferred a total of Rs 15,21,320 in this manner. Requests for returns were met with excuses, and eventually all communication stopped entirely. By the time Gupta approached police, every contact avenue had gone silent.
The use of a woman’s name and persona to initiate contact is a documented tactic in India’s online trading fraud ecosystem. In one Kanpur case from early 2026, a trader lost Rs 26.20 lakh after being contacted via WhatsApp by someone presenting themselves as a woman investor who had made substantial profits through cryptocurrency trading, deploying a social connection as credibility cover before the scheme began. The pattern in Gupta’s case is structurally identical.
The Mule Account Trail and What It Reveals
Cyber investigators traced Rs 4.50 lakh of the total fraud amount to an IndusInd Bank account allegedly held in the name of Ratan Kapoor, a resident of Saket Nagar in Kanpur. Technical analysis of this account revealed two significant findings: it had been linked to five cybercrime complaints filed in different states, and it had processed nearly Rs 94 lakh in suspicious transactions in total.
These figures point strongly toward a mule account, a bank account opened in someone else’s name or under false pretences and then sold or rented to cybercriminals for use as a temporary receiving point for stolen funds. Kanpur police have repeatedly uncovered such operations in 2026, including a Delhi-masterminded network that used mule accounts set up across multiple banks to channel proceeds from fake stock market investments, online gaming scams and high-return fraud schemes, with total estimated transactions approaching Rs 14 crore.
In a separate Kanpur case, investigators found that stolen funds were routed through multiple mule accounts to mask the identities of final beneficiaries, with the entire network eventually traced to a Rs 58 crore fraud originating in Navi Mumbai. The account flagged in Gupta’s case may be one node in a similarly layered structure, and police are now examining linked accounts, fund transfers and beneficiary identities to establish how far the network extends.
A City at the Centre of a Wider Problem
Kanpur’s repeated appearance in mule account investigations is not coincidental. Investigations have shown that the city has been home to organised second-layer fraud operations, where illicit funds obtained through scams elsewhere are routed into the region’s bank accounts to be cycled, withdrawn and redistributed. The involvement of private bank officials as facilitators in at least one major Kanpur case signals that the problem extends beyond opportunistic account misuse into more structured insider-assisted laundering.
The I4C’s National Cybercrime Reporting Portal has flagged the city as a cybercrime hotspot, and local police have been operating on that intelligence with increasing frequency. Each new FIR, including Gupta’s complaint at Kidwai Nagar, adds data points that help cyber cell investigators map active account networks and pursue the operators who supply them.
Prof. Triveni Singh, cybercrime expert and former IPS officer, warns that the social media contact method used in this case is one of the most effective fraud approaches in circulation precisely because it mimics the way genuine financial relationships begin. He advises that any unsolicited investment offer received online should be independently verified through official channels, such as SEBI’s registered intermediary database, before any funds are transferred. Victims who realise they have been defrauded should call 1930 or file a complaint at cybercrime.gov.in immediately, as prompt reporting significantly improves the chances of funds being frozen before they are dispersed further through the network.
