MUMBAI: A 59-year-old Tardeo resident was cheated of ₹6.80 crore by cyber frauds, who lured him with handsome profits on stock market investments by using the name of a London-based financial institution.Tardeo resident loses ₹6.8 cr to ‘online stock investment’ scamThe complainant, a retiree, saw an advertisement on social media and joined the WhatsApp group started by the scamsters, who shared investment “tips” with him. They told him if invested through them, he would can get institutional trade benefits, after-market and pre-launch IPO benefits. When he saw the name of the London-based financial institution in their propaganda, he was impressed.“He was initially allowed to withdraw ₹20,000 and later his profits showed to ₹149 crore when invested less than ₹7 crore,” said a police officer. However, when he tried to withdraw the money shown as accumulated in his virtual account, they told him to invest more. The complainant grew suspicious when they started avoiding him.The South Cyber police said the scamsters cheated the complainant from April 11 to May 27, when he transferred money to various bank accounts given by the accused in 48 different transactions. It totalled ₹6.80 crore.“He approached us and lodged a complaint for cheating by impersonation, forgery, using forged documents or electronic records as genuine documents, and criminal conspiracy of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, and various sections of the Information Technology Act,” said the police officer.