80-year-old man clicks on Facebook ad, duped of ₹2.51 crore in fake IPO investment scam in Bengaluru

An 80-year-old resident of Cox Town in Bengaluru has fallen victim to a massive cyber fraud, losing over ₹2.51 crore to scammers posing as bank officials.

The victim — Vaidyanathan — filed a complaint with the East Division Cyber Crime Police on April 4, stating that unidentified persons impersonating officials of a private bank lured him into investing in fake stock market schemes.

According to Vaidyanathan, the fraud began in January 2026 when he clicked on a Facebook advertisement promoting stock tips and block trading in Initial Public Offerings (IPOs), falsely claiming association with a private bank and its securities wing. After submitting his personal details through a link, he was contacted by a woman identifying herself as ‘Anvika Mehra’, and several others operating through multiple phone numbers.

The accused persuaded him to invest through two mobile applications (KOTMOT and KOTPRO), available on the Google Play Store. Over time, the apps showed that his investment of ₹2.51 crore had nearly doubled to ₹5 crore.

The scammers then pressured him to deposit an additional ₹3 crore to secure an alleged IPO allotment, which later turned out to be fraudulent. Vaidyanathan attempted to contact the customer support numbers provided within a WhatsApp group posing as Securities Support for the private bank, but did not receive any assistance.

Police said Vaidyanathan carried out 23 transactions amounting to just over ₹2.5 crore from his account between February 23 and March 24. All funds were routed to multiple bank accounts controlled by the fraudsters.

Realising that he had been cheated, Vaidyanathan approached the cyber crime police, who have registered a case against unknown persons under Sections 66C and 66D of the Information Technology Act, 2000, along with Section 318(4) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023.

An investigation is underway to trace the accused and recover the money taken from Vaidyanathan by fraud.