Hamirpur (HP), Jan 21 (PTI) A retired government official from this district of Himachal Pradesh has been duped of Rs 82 lakh by cyber crooks who offered high returns for investment in share market, police said on Tuesday.

The victim has lodged a complaint of fraud at Cyber Cell police station in Mandi, they said.

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The retired official in his complaint said that he received a link on Facebook and later he was added to a WhatsApp group with over 150 people, Hamirpur Superintendent of Police Bhagat Singh Thakur said.

Then he starting getting tips for investing in share market, Thakur said.

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The complainant alleged that the fraudsters lured him with a fake stock promising 1,200 per cent returns following which he transferred Rs 82 lakh in eight transactions in various accounts of the crooks.

After a few days, when the victim asked for his money, the fraudsters did not give him any satisfactory answer due to which he got suspicious and lodged a complaint.

The Cyber Cell team managed to put on hold a sum of Rs 16 lakh transferred in accounts of the crooks and the money was returned through National Cybercrime Reporting Portal (NCRP), the SP said.

DIG (Cyber Crime) Mohit Chawla said people should avoid investing through social media as conmen are on prowl to lure gullible investors with the promise of high profits.

In such a situation, one needs to be more vigilant. Before investing, people should contact 1930 and take advice, he added.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)